TALK / LECTURE | FRIDAY, 4 APRIL 2025 | 17:30 - 18:30
Still Poor, Less Sexy, and Battered: How Recent Years Have Changed the Meaning of Post-Soviet Chic. A talk with Agata Pyzik.
eastcontemporary, via Giuseppe Pecchio 3, 20131, Milan
We are pleased to invite you to the talk Still Poor, Less Sexy, and Battered: How Recent Years Have Changed the Meaning of Post-Soviet Chic, held in conjunction with our current group exhibition POOR BUT SEXY, curated by Sergey Kantsedal and featuring works by Nikita Kadan (1982, Ukraine), Dominika Olszowy (1988, Poland), Mila Panić (1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ala Savashevich (1989, Belarus), Anastasia Sosunova (1993, Lithuania) and Miroslav Tichý (1926–2011, Czech Republic). On view until 12 April 2025.
Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West was written in 2012–13 to examine the post-communist East’s exploitation by the neoliberal West. Over a decade later, while Eastern Europe's economic situation has improved, the region faces its greatest political upheaval since 1989—marked by three years of Russian invasion in Ukraine and escalating threats to liberal democracy. Meanwhile, the West grapples with a profound moral and ideological crisis. Can contemporary art and culture once again help us make sense of these shifts?
In this lecture, Agata Pyzik, author of the eponymous book, will examine whether and why post-Cold War East-West inequality is still an issue, disrupting the lives of entire nations. She will also examine how artists featured in the exhibition POOR BUT SEXY challenge these dynamics through their work.
Agata Pyzik is a writer, art critic, and author of Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West (Zero, 2014) and A Girl and a Gun: A Memoir (Pamoja Press, 2020). She contributes regularly to Artforum, Frieze, and The Guardian, among others. She currently lives in Portishead, UK.
SPACES ARE LIMITED.
PLEASE RSVP AT INFO@EAST-CONTEMPORARY.ORG
GALLERY OPENING HOURS DURING MILAN ART WEEK:
01-05 April 11:00-19:00
06 April open by appointment