Still Poor, Less Sexy, and Battered: How Recent Years Have Changed the Meaning of Post-Soviet Chic
talk, with Agata Pyzik
April 4, 2025
eastcontemporary, Milan
"Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West" was written in 2012–13 to examine the post-communist East’s exploitation by the neoliberal West. Over a decade later, while Eastern Europe's economic situation has improved, the region faces its greatest political upheaval since 1989—marked by three years of Russian invasion in Ukraine and escalating threats to liberal democracy. Meanwhile, the West grapples with a profound moral and ideological crisis. Can contemporary art and culture once again help us make sense of these shifts?
In this lecture, Agata Pyzik, author of the eponymous book, will examine whether and why post-Cold War East-West inequality is still an issue, disrupting the lives of entire nations. She will also examine how artists featured in the exhibition POOR BUT SEXY, curated by Sergey Kantsedal at eastcontemporary gallery, challenge these dynamics through their work.
Agata Pyzik is a writer, art critic, and author of Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West (Zero, 2014) and A Girl and a Gun: A Memoir (Pamoja Press, 2020). She contributes regularly to Artforum, Frieze, and The Guardian, among others.
talk, with Agata Pyzik
April 4, 2025
eastcontemporary, Milan
"Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West" was written in 2012–13 to examine the post-communist East’s exploitation by the neoliberal West. Over a decade later, while Eastern Europe's economic situation has improved, the region faces its greatest political upheaval since 1989—marked by three years of Russian invasion in Ukraine and escalating threats to liberal democracy. Meanwhile, the West grapples with a profound moral and ideological crisis. Can contemporary art and culture once again help us make sense of these shifts?
In this lecture, Agata Pyzik, author of the eponymous book, will examine whether and why post-Cold War East-West inequality is still an issue, disrupting the lives of entire nations. She will also examine how artists featured in the exhibition POOR BUT SEXY, curated by Sergey Kantsedal at eastcontemporary gallery, challenge these dynamics through their work.
Agata Pyzik is a writer, art critic, and author of Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West (Zero, 2014) and A Girl and a Gun: A Memoir (Pamoja Press, 2020). She contributes regularly to Artforum, Frieze, and The Guardian, among others.
