with Denis Maksimov, Sasha Shevchenko and Pia Zeitzen
We are pleased to announce a collaborative event on the occasion of the ACF’s current exhibition Of course I know eternity: Wilhelm Traeger + Gray Wielebinski and Pushkin House’s exhibition _____n Haus. The event will feature a screening of “ _____n Haus” (2025) by Russian conceptual artist Arsen Zhilyaev, followed by a panel discussion between curators Denis Maksimov, Sasha Shevchenko and Pia Zeitzen. The evening is dedicated to the politics of memory, speculation and time as well as the conceptual considerations of two exhibitions in dialogue with their specific physical spaces.
Drawing on the visual and architectural similarities of the two exhibition spaces, the event directly interferes with the curatorial constants of time and space by screening Arsen Zhilyaev’ silent film with German subtitles, first shown at Pushkin House in 16mm pseudo-archival format between 26 March – 26 June 2025. The ACF’s salon, currently occupied by historical collages of Austrian post-war artist Wilhelm Traeger and site-specific installations of London-based American multidisciplinary artist Gray Wielebinski, turns into the space of encounter between speculative dialogues of the artists framed by the Georgian architecture, just like in Pushkin House.
The screening will be followed by a conversation between curators of Of course I know eternity Pia Zeitzen and Sasha Shevchenko of Kollektiv Collective and co-curator of______n Haus Denis Maksimov, discussing curatorial methodologies in the context of both exhibitions’ thematic underpinnings and their intersections, such as Zhilyaev’s interest in pataphysics as a language of political and institutional critique, Wielebinski’s approach towards deconstructing the aesthetics of power and control, and Traeger’s legacy of navigating the promises of progress in the aftermath of human devastation. In the space that is at once before and after the respective end date, the conversation extends into geopolitical discourses on cyclical time.
About Kollektiv Collective
Kollektiv Collective is a London-based curatorial collective founded by independent curators and writers Pia Zeitzen and Sasha Shevchenko in 2019. Kollektiv Collective specialises in site-specific curatorial projects with a research- and process-led collaborative practice. Zeitzen and Shevchenko’s work is rooted in their fascination with space – architecturally, conceptually and socio-politically – through which they engage with contemporary anxieties in order to critically and communally contextualise different modes of being in the present. Working site-specifically, the underpinnings of their projects are developed with and against a given exhibition space and setting.
Kollektiv Collective has previously exhibited in galleries and institutions including Palo Gallery, New York; Inspection Pit, Sussex; Generation & Display as part of London Design Festival; Des Bains, London; General Assembly, London; Tabula Rasa Gallery, London; Guts Gallery Projects, London; Kupfer, London; SET Woolwich, London; Christie’s, London; and Swiss Church, London.
About Denis Maksimov
Denis Maksimov curates and teaches contemporary art, global histories and interdisciplinary humanities. He is a Curator of Art and Programmes at Pushkin House, London, a lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Moscow, and a founder of Lecture Performance Archive and Avenir Institute. He is a member of the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM), the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT), the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). He presented artistic and curatorial work at the Helsinki Art Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Marres House for Contemporary Culture, and galleries in Brussels, Tallinn, Athens and London. He has organised international exhibitions and public programmes in the context of the Venice Biennales of Art and Architecture (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 & 2022), São Paulo Biennale (2016), Tbilisi Architecture Biennale (2020), Ural Industrial Biennial (2017), Art Basel Miami, London Art Fair, and Cosmoscow.
About Pushkin House
Pushkin House is an arts, cultural and social space that explores, challenges and debates Russian culture and identity today. In dialogue with other regions, the institution focuses on the contested legacies, tumultuous present and possible futures of Russian, Eastern European, and post-Soviet geocultural spaces. Pushkin House’s public programming, exhibitions and community engagement – across history, literature, and the visual and performing arts – share connections among individuals, disciplines, periods and cultures and engage themes of identity, citizenship, migration, displacement and belonging.
