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A HOUSE FOR VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY
BRIEF
In this year when we will celebrate 50 years since that seminal year 1968, we also celebrate 125 years since the birth of the great Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.
A mere coincidence, of course, or a synchronicity we, as rational, “modern” human beings, might not give too much significance to.
Yet, let’s think…
What did 1968 mean ?
It was the year when students from various parts of the world revolted.
It was the year when, a little less than 25 years after the deadly Second World War, a tumultuous human Spring blossomed.
Do we still have that energy now ?
Maybe not… although in a latent state that energy is possibly still “there.”
Mayakovsky was the quintessential “revolutionary poet.”
A poet who didn’t find a comfortable refuge in the well known ivory tower, but a poet who descended, eagerly, on the street.
As long as we still have such poets in the world, there is hope.
Yes, we have now incredible amounts of the deadliest weapons, weapons whose very existence might erase from our vocabulary the very word “poet.”
But, as it has been said, “the poets are always right in the end.”
Which end ? ANY end ?
Let’s hope these most fragile of all human beings, the poets, will continue to find resources to fight off the accelerating propulsion of the human species towards self-destruction.
To be active socially, politically, and not only culturally, or spiritually, means to be alive here and now, on this troubled earth.
We invite you to imagine A HOUSE FOR VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY.
At a time when, through an almost obsessive proliferation of museums, we tend to forget that essentially, indeed, museums are dead shrines, as Mayakovsky himself said, let’s recall his own words: “Art must not be concentrated in dead shrines called museums. It must spread everywhere – on streets, in the trams, factories, workshops, and in the workers’ homes.”
A dreamer, of course, Mayakovsky. But what would we do without these dreamers ?
We would be unable to preserve and generate life! Here he says: “Our planet / is poorly equipped / for delight. / One must snatch / gladness / from the days that are / In this life / it’s not difficult to die. / To make life / is more difficult by far.”
Design A HOUSE FOR VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY, for this “cloud in trousers” who loved life and equality with an ardor that is not ours.
Please send us your work by July 1st, 2018. We will organize an exhibition with the best works received at Erasmus Haus in Vienna, starting on the very day Mayakovsky was born: July 19th. Please be kind and register before the deadline in order to receive a registration number with which to anonymously identify your work. We accept only format A0, oriented vertically preferably, as many sheets as you want.
SCHEDULE
Please send us your work by July 1st, 2018
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