The sixth volume of the bie bao series presents the first English translation of Ilya Zdanevich's writings on Berlin.
Zdanevich visited Berlin at the end of 1922 spending time with Russian emigre writers whom he accused of commodifying and watering down the avant-garde discoveries. Zdanevich dismisses these opportunist writers as "khaltura" writers—using a re-emerged Russian word designating hackwork, sloppiness, or simply kitsch art.
Zdanevich's Berlin report is translated and introduced by Roman Utkin, the author of a monograph on Russian Culture in Weimar Berlin. The volume also includes letters sent by Viktor Shklovsky to Zdanevich, whom he subsequently hosted in Berlin. Translated and introduced by Jyrki Siukonen, these letters, like all other materials are presented with extensive annotations and commentaries.
This volume also presents Zdanevich's 1914 words-in-freedom poem gaROland. Translated and introduced by the poet Eugene Ostashevsky, the poem is dedicated to the aviator Roland Garros and marks Zdanevich's initiation into Futurist poetry.
The bie bao series will include eight publications, covering many layers of Zdanevich's rich theoretical and artistic output. Each volume consists of a bio-bibliographical introduction, a commentary, a translation with annotations, and artistic intervention.
Iliazd (Ilya Zdanevich, 1894-1975) was a Russian poet, designer, typographer, theoretician, art critic, and publisher, close to the avant-garde circles and one of the promoters of
Futurism in Russia, author of a poetic work, drama written in
zaum abstract poetic trans-sense or "transrational" language, and novels.
