bie bao series

Sezgin Boynik, editor of Rab-Rab Press, together with Johanna Drucker, visual artist and writer, and Eugene Ostashevsky, a poet and translator, will discuss the work and thought of Ilya Zdanevich – Iliazd (1894–1975).

Zdanevich was a poet, designer, typographer, theoretician, and publisher who developed a new philosophy and methodology based on the language of “zaum” experiments. Zaum (beyond-sense), one of the most important artistic devices of the Russian left avant-garde, was a type of sound poem cultivated by Velimir Khlebnikov, Roman Jakobson, Kazimir Malevich, Alexei Kruchenykh, and Olga Rozanova, among others. Zdanevich, in his work in Tbilisi, St. Petersburg, and Paris, pushed the boundaries of zaum to extremes and conceived of it as a new language of internationalism and artistic innovation.

The discussion will give insight into the artistic and intellectual formation of Ilya Zdanevich, focusing on his political ideas, theories of language, typographical inventions, and artist-books productions, and will introduce lesser-known figures that Zdanevich worked with.

Zdanevich is the focus of a new series of books published by Rab-Rab Press. The bie-bao series: militant zaum investigations will include eight volumes, covering many layers of Zdanevich’s rich theoretical and artistic output. Each volume will consist of a bio-bibliographical introduction, a commentary, a translation with annotations, and an artistic intervention.