The Institute of the Cosmos presents an online library of essential readings on and about Russian Cosmism. Until very recently, many of these key essays, treatises, poems, and novels have not been available in English. Those that have been translated have been scattered and difficult to find. The Institute’s researchers assembled this selection of historical and contemporary texts to make the intellectual context surrounding cosmism accessible. This library will continue expanding: subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on new titles.
Topics:
Accelerationism, Anarchism, Architecture, Art, Artificial Intelligence, Astro-Linguistics, Biocosmism, Communism, Constructivism, Cryogenics, Cybernetics, Earth, Ecology, Energy, Film, Futurism, Gender, God-Building, Immortalism, Labor, Machine Learning, Marxism, Materialism, Monism, Museology, Noosphere, Occult, Poetry, Productivism, Religion, Reproduction, Resurrection, Revolution, Rocketry, Science, Science Fiction, Socialism, Soviet Union, Space Exploration, Suprematism, Technology, Time, Transhumanism, Weather
Authors:
Abba & Wolf Gordin, Aleksandr Svyatogor, Aleksei Gastev, Alexander Bogdanov, Alexander Chizhevsky, Alexander Yaroslavsky, Alexandre Kojève, Anastasia Gacheva, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Andrei Platonov, Anton Vidokle, Arkady Strugatsky, Arseny Zhilyaev, Boris Groys, Boris Strugatsky, Fred Berthold Jr., Friedrich Nietzsche, George Young, Georges Bataille, Gilgamesh, Herman Potočnik Noordung, Hermann Oberth, Hito Steyerl, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Johannes Kepler, Kazimir Malevich, Keti Chukhrov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Marina Simakova, Mckenzie Wark, Mikhail Bulgakov, Nel Grillaert, Nikolai Berdyaev, Nikolai Fedorov, Nikolay Zabolotsky, Pavel Florensky, Peter Kropotkin, Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, Sergei Bulgakov, Sergei Eisenstein, Trevor Paglen, Valerian Muraviov, Vasily Chekrygin, Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vladimir Odoyevsky, Vladimir Solovyov, Vladimir Vernadsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Walter Nunzio Sisto
The cinema of the Institute of the Cosmos is pleased to present Immortality for All: A film trilogy on Russian Cosmism by Anton Vidokle.
In this three-part film project, Anton Vidokle probes Cosmism’s influence on the twentieth century and suggests its relevance to the present day. In This is Cosmos (2014), the artist returns to the foundations of Cosmist thought. The second chapter, entitled The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun (2015), explores the links between cosmology and politics. The film's third chapter, Immortality and Resurrection for All! (2017), re-stages the museum as a site of resurrection, a central Cosmist idea.
Combining essay, documentary, and performance, the trilogy quotes from the writings of Cosmism’s founder Nikolai Fedorov and other philosophers and poets. Vidokle's wandering camera searches for traces of Cosmist influence in the remains of Soviet-era art, architecture and engineering, moving from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the museums of Moscow. Music by John Cale and Éliane Radigue accompanies these haunting images, conjuring up the yearning for connectedness, social equality, material transformation and immortality at the heart of Cosmist thought.
Watch the films here.
