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Gastev. How to Work
Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka
2019
2019
This research exhibition continued the series of projects by the Avant-garde Center, uncovering little-known yet significant episodes in early 20th-century cultural history. Despite the global recognition of Aleksei Gastev’s texts, experiments, and theories, no dedicated books about him have been published in Russian, and many gaps remain in his biography.
For the first time, the exhibition presented Gastev in multiple roles—as a theorist, writer, journalist, political figure, and the founder of the Central Institute of Labor (CIT). To explore these diverse aspects, curator Aleksandra Selivanova assembled an interdisciplinary research team, bringing together historians, art historians, literary scholars, and sociologists. The scientific consultants were poet and translator Aleksei Tkachenko-Gastev, great-grandson of Aleksei Gastev, and historian Aleksandra Kulaeva, a specialist in Gastev's biography.
A major section of the exhibition was dedicated to the activities of the Central Institute of Labor (CIT), its founders and laboratories, including psychotechnical and biomechanical research, Sergei Nikritin’s Projection Theater, and the Institute’s film and photography laboratory. Alongside previously unseen archival documents and photographs from family collections, the exhibition presented reconstructions of CIT's "installations" and "machines"—experimental tools and training devices from the institute’s laboratories.
The presentation of materials was inspired by the principles of Scientific Organization of Labor (NOT) and Gastev’s methodological manuals. In the spirit of educational museums from the 1920s, the exhibition allowed visitors to engage directly with the archive and publications.
Rather than offering a definitive portrait of Gastev, the exhibition aimed to sketch a framework, following CIT’s method—outlining key reference points and nodes in his biography, which will require further analysis, expansion, and study. The reconstruction of CIT tools and training devices, created specifically for the exhibition, was an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the institute and honor the daily work that once took place there—work that no longer exists in material form but has been preserved in the realm of ideas.
Exhibited at the Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka, Perm Museum of Modern Art, and Yeltsin Center.
For the first time, the exhibition presented Gastev in multiple roles—as a theorist, writer, journalist, political figure, and the founder of the Central Institute of Labor (CIT). To explore these diverse aspects, curator Aleksandra Selivanova assembled an interdisciplinary research team, bringing together historians, art historians, literary scholars, and sociologists. The scientific consultants were poet and translator Aleksei Tkachenko-Gastev, great-grandson of Aleksei Gastev, and historian Aleksandra Kulaeva, a specialist in Gastev's biography.
A major section of the exhibition was dedicated to the activities of the Central Institute of Labor (CIT), its founders and laboratories, including psychotechnical and biomechanical research, Sergei Nikritin’s Projection Theater, and the Institute’s film and photography laboratory. Alongside previously unseen archival documents and photographs from family collections, the exhibition presented reconstructions of CIT's "installations" and "machines"—experimental tools and training devices from the institute’s laboratories.
The presentation of materials was inspired by the principles of Scientific Organization of Labor (NOT) and Gastev’s methodological manuals. In the spirit of educational museums from the 1920s, the exhibition allowed visitors to engage directly with the archive and publications.
Rather than offering a definitive portrait of Gastev, the exhibition aimed to sketch a framework, following CIT’s method—outlining key reference points and nodes in his biography, which will require further analysis, expansion, and study. The reconstruction of CIT tools and training devices, created specifically for the exhibition, was an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the institute and honor the daily work that once took place there—work that no longer exists in material form but has been preserved in the realm of ideas.
Exhibited at the Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka, Perm Museum of Modern Art, and Yeltsin Center.
Curator
Aleksandra Selivanova
Curatorial Assistant
Sofia Michel
Scientific Consultants
Aleksandra Kulaeva
Aleksei Tkachenko-Gastev
Research Team
Maxim Osovsky
Kirill Zakharov
Irina Sirotkina
Lyubov Pchyolkina
Anna Pronina
Anton Karmanov
Ivan Atapin
Aleksandra Novozhonova
Graphic Design
Nadezhda Andrianova
Reconstruction of Tools and Devices
Anton Ketov
Andrey Panitkov
Aleksandra Selivanova
Curatorial Assistant
Sofia Michel
Scientific Consultants
Aleksandra Kulaeva
Aleksei Tkachenko-Gastev
Research Team
Maxim Osovsky
Kirill Zakharov
Irina Sirotkina
Lyubov Pchyolkina
Anna Pronina
Anton Karmanov
Ivan Atapin
Aleksandra Novozhonova
Graphic Design
Nadezhda Andrianova
Reconstruction of Tools and Devices
Anton Ketov
Andrey Panitkov
