MYSTIC CONCEPTUALISM INVISIBILITY AND EPIPHANY IN RUSSIAN CONCEPTUAL ART

In this paper I propose an alternative reading of the politically charged artistic activities of the Russian conceptual art group 'Collective Actions', taking into account the structure of the aesthetic experience and the key concept of 'empty action' from the perspective of mystical experience. I suggest that translating the language of apophatic theology into the regime of mundane aesthetic experience via Heidegger's reflections on 'nothingness' is able not only to articulate possible genealogical references still missing in dominant art historical accounts of the group, but also to enrich our understanding of how such participative artistic actions critically worked against the dominant political regime to engender a new mode of subjectivity.