IU art professor Andréa Stanislav talks with internationally renown Russian artist Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya) and Russian curator Anna Bitkina of TOK (see below), both currently living in The Netherlands. Gluklya and Bitkina discuss art in the age of COVID-19, how the pandemic has redefined time and relationships not only for artists but for all people, the need for art today, and how their collaborative art projects have developed and grown. Their collaboration began with the ongoing performance project, "Debates on Division: When Private becomes Public," which started in 2014 upon Russia's annexation of Crimea. They also discuss a project made up of a series of conversations about the process and act of drawing and creating. This project in particular looks at the struggle for artists to find space and time for their work and for creativity, when time is so often eaten up by other demands such as meeting a deadline, writing a proposal, etc. At their heart of their collaboration is a desire for understanding one another, for building up community, and for reflection in the way we act and think.

About the interview participants:

Andréa Stanislav's creative research and visual arts practice is split between Bloomington, IN, New York City and St. Petersburg, RU. Her hybrid practice spans sculpture, multimedia installation, and public art. More about Stanislav can be found at https://rsw.indiana.edu/about/faculty...

Gluklya is a performance artist who now lives in Amsterdam. Gluklya is a recipient of the Joseph Brodsky Memorial Fund Artist Fellowship; exhibitions include the 56th Venice Biennial. Gluklya's artwork and exhibits can be found at: http://gluklya.com or at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...

Anna Bitkina, along with Maria Veits, in 2010 founded TOK, a curatorial collective based in St Petersburg as a platform for conducting interdisciplinary projects in the fields of contemporary art and design and social sciences. TOK’s projects have a strong social component and deal with current issues that are widely discussed both in Russia and internationally such as migration, public space and citizens, development of education, deprivation of social resources, forming collective memory, use of natural resources, growing role of the media in the global society, changing political climate and many others. TOK curators have also always been largely interested in exploring the concept of public space in post-Soviet Russia and the former Soviet Union, as well as perception, understanding and mechanisms of use of public spaces and open areas by residents of post-Soviet cities. One of the current interests of TOK is reaction of the media to global sociolopolitical processes. More about TOK can be found at: http://tok-spb.org/new/en/about-tok or at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb....