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Starting from his own experience as a curator, Viktor Misiano recounts the frustration and difficulties of the Russian art scene after the end of the Soviet Union. The transformation of references, institutions and audiences forced artists to seek alternative paths, coming to terms with their own disillusion. If for some, such as Alexander Brener and Oleg Kulik, the solution was to create brutal, almost a-logical and pre-discursive performances, for others, such as Misiano himself, it was instead a matter of breaking out of the boundaries traditionally attributed to art, weaving articulated and interdisciplinary dialogues.

Viktor Misiano is a theorist and curator. He curated the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1995, 2003 and 2005 and Manifesta I in Rotterdam in 1996. He is founder and editor of Khudozhestvenny zhurnal (Moscow Art Magazine) and Manifesta Journal: Journal of Contemporary Curatorship. Misiano has collaborated with numerous art magazines, including Flash Art, Art Magazine, Kunstforum, Journal of Art, and has lectured at many institutions including the Royal College of Art (London, UK) and the School of Visual Arts (New York City, USA).