Collections

The GES-2 Library features thematic book selections dedicated to individual projects of the House of Culture and various directions of its artistic and public programmes.

The Library’s Collections are regularly updated. Collections freely available in the Library’s reading room are presented in the Now section. To access books from collections that have moved to the Past section, you need to obtain a library card and order the necessary publications through your personal account in the Library’s electronic catalog.

Collections are formed with the participation of GES-2 curators, artists, and experts: this approach provides a deeper understanding of the House of Culture’s activities, shows the internal logic of our projects, and the context of their creation. Each collection is accompanied by a description from the compilers, and sometimes by detailed commentaries. Some collections, in turn, consist of several selections: this makes it easier to find publications dedicated to specific topics, public projects, exhibitions, and events.

As a result, unexpected and unique connections are established between very different books. According to the “law of good neighborliness” introduced by art historian Aby Warburg, books should be classified not only and not so much by bibliographic features. Their systematisation should be based on content—so that each subsequent book comments on, complements, or critiques the previous one.

Accessibility

One of the main objectives of GES-2 House of Culture is to provide equal access to culture and create inclusive conditions for participation in projects and sociocultural interaction for different people, regardless of their individualities, experiences, or age.

Braille and More 

GES-2 House of Culture strives to be a space where people with diverse experiences can come together. One of our major areas of focus is engagement with blind and partially sighted visitors. Here, we present a book collection that spans various genres—from self-study guides to memoirs. All these works are united by a deep interest in and care for the daily life and culture of the blind and partially sighted community.

Neurodiversity 

In this collection, one can find both fundamental research that has become the theoretical foundation for the concept of neurodiversity, as well as limited-edition publications, comics, and exhibition catalogues. All books are united by an interest in the lives of neurodivergent people and their experiences of interacting with an ever-changing world.

Mediation 

Mediation is a practice of interaction between a cultural institution and its visitors, aimed at establishing respectful dialogue among all participants in the process. The collection in the Library emerged as a reflection on the theoretical and practical foundations of mediation. The collection was assembled by GES-2’s specialists, based on their own understanding of what mediation means today and what forms it can take within a cultural institution.

Artists’ books 

Publications from the Library’s collection tell the story of the history and theory of artist’s books as an art form: from experiments by nineteenth-century painters to contemporary limited-edition zines. The collection is complemented by works of modern creators in this genre.

Time-Based Media

Performance 

Performance is often seen as simply a spectacular form of contemporary art, in which the artistic gesture is an action somehow “choreographed” by the artist. The texts presented in this book collection address the various meanings of the term, revealing the collective and social character of the phenomenon.

Cinema 

This is a collection of key works on cinematography, from classical treatises to contemporary studies. It includes theory, criticism, biographies, and even works of fiction dedicated to the screen arts. The collection was formed gradually as part of GES-2 House of Culture’s “Cinema” programme.

Theatre 

This book collection explores the history of theatre, examines theoretical works, and introduces contemporary drama. The selection complements the theatrical direction developing at GES-2 House of Culture.

Exhibitions

The GES-2’s exhibition programme connects diverse subjects, phenomena, and authors to forge meaningful connections between classical and contemporary art, between cultures of different parts of the world and Russia, and across various disciplines and fields of knowledge.

How to Invent the Middle Ages: Recommended by Polina Pilyugina 

The Middle Ages do not remain in the past—they return to us in images, narratives, and myths that are reproduced again and again. Compiled by the medievalist Polina Pilyugina to coincide with the Undark Ages: Tales of Medievalism and Academia exhibition at GES-2, this book collection offers a look at the Middle Ages not just as a historical period but as a living and contradictory cultural construct.

Split Together, Merged Apart 

This book collection follows the curatorial approach of the Split Together, Merged Apart exhibition project, which brings together archaeological finds, historical documents, and twentieth-century works of art. It explores how the idea of building the future is intertwined with the rethinking and “reinterpretation” of geography, nature, history, and the fates of individuals.

Bardiversum 

The books included in this collection do not just complement the exhibition If These Walls Were Water. Lina Bo Bardi—they will be of interest to anyone curious about Latin American architecture and interdisciplinarity in contemporary cultural projects.

Videobrasil. Needs No Translation 

The Videobrasil. Needs No Translation exhibition examines the development of technology and media through the lens of art from Global South countries, emphasising the self-sufficiency of visual language that has evolved over decades in the practices of artists from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By focusing on video art techniques, transformations in cinema, and the context of Russian video art, this collection offers visitors a deeper understanding of the exhibition’s meaning-making aspects and broadens perspectives on Latin American culture.

Future in the Past 

n extensive book collection featuring works on the theory and history of Russian and Western art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These research materials and art historical essays complement the exhibition Square and Space: From Malevich to GES-2.

Personal collections

The private book collections donated to the Library represent unique portraits of their owners. These compilations reveal individual interests, passions, professional connections, and personal relationships of those who assembled them.

The Personal Library of Joseph Backstein 

This exceptional collection of rare research materials, theoretical works on contemporary art, and exhibition catalogues from the personal library of curator and cultural sociologist Joseph Backstein. All publications were donated to the Library by Backstein’s widow—the British art critic Kathy Deepwell.