Empty Action - Labour and Free Time in the Art of Collective Actions

Collective Actions is one of the most significant artistic practices to emerge from Moscow Conceptualism. The group’s enigmatic idea of ‘Empty action’ is the focal point for Marina Gerber’s exploration of this practice in relation to labour in the late Soviet Union. Based on interviews with members of the group (Monastyrski, Panitkov, Alexeev, Makarevich, Elagina, Romashko, Hansgen and Kiesewalter) she exposes the relation between their jobs, their individual art practices and their contribution to the collective in the context of post-Stalinist debates on labour and free time. Departing from the mundane fact that Collective Actions’ practice took place in free time from work for the Soviet State, Gerber identifies Empty action as a form of ‘art after work’.