The “Movement” Group/ Gruppe "Bewegung"

In September 1962 five young artists headed by 25-year-old Lev Nusberg founded the “Movement" group. The first participants were F. Infante, А. Krivchikov, V. Аkulinin, V. Scherbakov, R. Zanevskaya and М. Dorokhov. The movement was interpreted by the authors as change, relocation, mutual penetration, development, the state of everything that moves in both biological and esthetic sense. The important part of the project included the synthesis of various technical means and forms of art.

Lev Nusberg was born in 1937 in Tashkent. His father Voldemar came from the family of German gardeners von Nussberg. He used to work as an architect and took part in building new life in Soviet Turkestan. But in 1938 he was charged with “espionage in favor of a foreign state". From the end of the 1940s Lev and his mother, a singer and technologist Raisa Bespalova, moved to Leningrad. The grandson of V.G. Perov, Roman Alexeevich, and other employees of the Russian museum were the first to notice the talent of the young man and recommended him to the Moscow Art School (1951–1956).

The group designed synthetic mystery plays using the movement of light, gas, 3D elements and animated projections (most projects remained on paper). After thirty-year break they became the first group to put forward their own program (“Manifesto of Russian kinets", 1966) who turned boldly to new forms of creativity. The “Movement" group consisting of about 30 members by the end of 60s included, in addition to artists, actors, musicians, engineers, physicists, electronics specialists and psychologists. In the third quarter of the 20^th century kinetic artists – members of the “Movement" created artistic legacy which still looks extremely fresh. It includes findings and artistic discoveries in the area of academic art, graphics and applied arts, in the sphere of static and kinetic objects, performances and happenings. The first exhibition of the “Movement" presented the artists as an organized art-group and was called symbolically “On the way to the synthesis of arts". It took place 50 years ago, in December 1964.

Thanks to the support of their western colleagues the “Movement" group managed to organize a few exhibitions in Europe (Prague, 1965; Munich, 1966), as well as to take part in several international kinetic art shows: “New tendency 3" in Zagreb, “Vital alternatives" in Rome — in 1965; “Art – Light – Art" in Eindhoven (Holland) in 1966; “Kinetics" in Cologne in 1967; “Documenta 1968" in Kassel and in “Biennale 69" in Nurenberg. Soviet kinetism at these expositions was represented by the artworks of L. Nusberg, F. Infante, V. Galkin, V. Scherbakov, G. Bitt, S. Grigoriev, N. Prokuratova and other members of the group. In 1967 the group obtained the state order to decorate Leningrad for the 50th anniversary of the October revolution and next year they developed the project of kinetic playground “Flower island" on the Black Sea coast, after which it was officially closed. They still managed to stay afloat for a few more years. However, in 1976 Nusberg emigrated from the USSR, and the group fell apart with his departure. In 1980 in the USA he attempted to recreate the project of biono-cybernetic space but failed.

In 1972 the limited edition came out in Germany: an album presenting artworks of serigraphy/phototype technique under the name of “Portfolio Gruppe Bewegung 1972" (170 copies, 20 of which are authors'). In 1978 another book dedicated to Russian kinetists was published in Germany. Artworks of the “Movement" group are presented in private collections all over the world.

http://www.domberger.de/de/edition/mappenwerke/gru...