Circling the Square, an issue of the NYC-based arts imprint Cicada Press, documents the landscape of the recent uprising and the political climate that engendered it from many perspectives, ranging from an architectural analysis of Maidan, to documentation of an overtly criminal personal performance of solidarity in the Russian Federation, to an account of the occupation and attempted re-organization of the Ministry of Culture by a horizontal assembly of cultural workers. Despite the confusion in much of the world media and international left, these artists, writers and organizations are decidedly radical, negotiating a strange but critical position that recognizes the rising tide of jingoism that accompanies the threat of invasion as well as the opportunities opened up by Yanukovich’s collapse. The result has a decided lyricism that extends beyond a dry headline or inky propaganda.
Authors include major Russian and Ukrainian artists, activists, and collectives such as: Pavel Arsenev, Assembly for Culture in Ukraine, Larissa Babij, Oleksandr Burlaka, David Chichkan, Chto Delat?, Nikita Kadan, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Mariana Matveichuk, Dimitry Mrachnik of the Autonomous Workers Union, Anastasiya Osipova, Petr Pavlensky, Marina Simakova, TanzLaboratorium Performance Group, Larisa Venediktova, Alexandr Wolodarskij, Serhiy Zhadan, and Anna Zvyagintseva
The translators: Olivia Crough, Ian Dreiblatt, Ilya Kliger, J. Kates, Ronald Meyer, Dennis Ossipov-Grodsky, Anastasiya Osipova.
Due to the high cost of printing, and our desire to distribute this publication openly and widely with no cover price as a gesture of solidarity, we are accepting pay what you will donations for this digital version of the publication. This will serve to offset our costs, get the pieces into print in their beautiful full color, as well as further proliferate the articles and calls to action that we feel have a sense of urgency and should not have to wait for lengthier printing and shipping. We expect the print release to be available mid May, 2014.
You can obtain the .pdf file of Circling the Square here.
And here is Cicada Press’s front page.