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	Cradle of Humankind		

		Arseny Zhilyaev 
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  08.10. 20h	opening
  13.10. 20h	Tischgespräch
  			Avantgarde Museology	with Arseny Zhilyaev 
            		(in English) 
            	
            	LECTURE	 
  15.10. 20h		by Dr. Michael Hagemeister: 
  				Sterbliche aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!
  				Nikolaj Fedorov und der russische Kosmismus 
  					(in German)
  30.10. 20h	FILM SCREENINGS
  				Soviet Avantgarde and Cosmism
	
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		Curated by Kristina Semenova 
		
		

			
Arseny Zhilyaev depicts an unsettling image of a far off future in which humans have abandoned Earth, 
turning it into a museum-reservation called The Cradle of Humankind, dedicated to the origins 
of life and civilization. The reservation is part of a network of local museums commemorating historic 
figures and key events in the history of civilization on Earth, presenting artefacts from the past 
and merging the utopian aesthetics of the Soviet space programme with the ultimate idealism of Russian Cosmism. 
And, it is within the framework of this Utopia and Idealism that the museum also offers unique services, 
resurrecting client’s ancestors, therefore achieving the highest metaphysical aim. 
In contemplating the museum as an institution from a future perspective, Zhilyaev investigates its 
ambivalent role in the formation and conservation of our ideas about the world and life within 
contemporary political and economical conditions, as well as its growing corporate prominence within 
the global system of interminable cycles of production and consumption.  	



Supported by V-A-C Foundation Moscow, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, Kulturamt Leipzig