A Gift to Birobidzhan, 2009
Architectural Fantasy is inspired by the work of utopian architects, including the Russian constructivists, who built communes for the new Soviet working class, and the situationist architects of the 1960s France, the artist creates an image of an impossible city, at the center of which situated a new museum and artists’ studios. This is a city, where all social life is built around the creation and socialization of a new type of knowledge in new and non-hierarchical forms.
Nikolai Oleynikov was born in the city of Gorky, in U.S.S.R. in 1976. He graduated from Nizhegorodskoe Theater College with a degree in set designer. Member of the groups “What is to be done?” and “Fiks, Riff, Budraitskis, Oleynikov”. Frequent contributor to the Moscow Art Magazine. Recent solo exhibition include: ACTIVIST CLUB (w “Chto Delat’?”), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands; NOFUCKINFUNNY. Paperworks Gallery, Moscow; and Dialogues in the club. "Original" aka "Tipografia" artists space, Moscow. Lives and works in Moscow.