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The New Artists and the Mayakovsky Friends Club (1986-1990)

Text: Hannelore Fobo, 2021
Chapter 11. Document G. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Invitation card, 21. 12. 1986
previous page: Chapter 10. Document F. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Working plan for 1986-1987)
next page: Chapter 12. Document H. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Report about the first year (Sept.86-Sep. 87)
Table of contents: see bottom of page >>



Chapter 11. Document G.

Club of Friends of Mayakovsky. Invitation card to an theme evening (Тематический вечер) presenting amateur associations affiliated to the Vodokanal Club, 21 December 1986.


Scroll down for transcript, English translation, and notes.




Club of Friends of Mayakovsky. Invitation card to an theme evening (Тематический вечер) presenting amateur associations affiliated to the Vodokanal Club, 21 December 1986.

Тематический вечер

Знакомьтесь, молодежные любительские объединения!

Приглашение

Theme Evening

“Meet us, young youth amateur associations”

Invitation




Club of Friends of Mayakovsky. Invitation card to an theme evening (Тематический вечер) presenting amateur associations affiliated to the Vodokanal Club, 21 December 1986.




Left:

1986 21 Декабря Воскресенье в 15 часов
1986 21 December Sunday at 15.00 hrs

Centre:

“Дом — 33”. Клуб—студия пантомимы. Председатель В. Коршунов.
“House – 33”. Pantomime Studio-Club. Chairman V. Korshunov.

“Слово”.  Объединение молодых литераторов. Председатель Ю.  Нешитов.
“The Word”. Association of Young Writers. Chairman Yu. Neshitov.

Клуб друзей В.В. Маяковского. Председатель С. Бугаев.
Club of Friends of V.V. Mayakovsky. Chairman S. Bugaev

“ПРО АНИМА”. Клуб любителей старинной музыки. Председатель А. Иванов.
“PRO ANIMA”. Old Music Lovers Club. Chairman A. Ivanov

“На подоконнике”. Театральная объединение. Председатель С. Добротворский.
“On the Windowsill”. Theatre Association. Chairman S. Dobrotvorksii

Театрик “Потеха” ЛГИК им. Н.К. Крупской. Председатель Е. Товпенец.
Little Theatre “Fun” Leningrad State Institute of Culture named after N. K. Krupskaya. Chairman E. Tovpenets.

И другие объединения.
And other associations.

Right:

Молодежный центр Дзержинского района (клуб Водоканал улица Таврическая, 10)
Dzerzhinsky District Youth Centre (Vodokanal Club – Tavricheskaya ul., 10)




On Sunday, 21 December 1986, the Dzerzhinsky District‘s Vodokanal Club presented several of its affiliated youth amateur associations. Under the headline “Meet us, young youth amateur associations”, the card invites to a “Theme Evening” with six clubs listed by their names, as well as “other associations”.

The invitation card, printed with 600 copies on 17 December, was countersigned by the Dzerzhinsky District Committee on 19 December. This didn’t leave much time to distribute the cards, but on the one hand, it isn’t very likely that the Vodokanal Club expected that many guests, and on the other hand, the news about the evening had probably spread by word of mouth long before. A handwritten correction advanced the beginning from 18.00 hrs. to 15.00 hrs. With six or more clubs presenting their activites, such an early “theme evening” makes sense.

The Mayakovsky Friends Club is listed as the third participant, following a pantomime group and an association of young writers. What exactly the Club presented the programme doesn’t tell. Judging by the file name of the invitation card scan I received, it was the performance of Mayakovsky‘s poem “Out, Moonshine”, announced in the Club’s working plan for 1986-1987 and confirmed inTimur Novikov's report from 5 October 1987 about the first year of the Club‘s activities.

Having said that, it is not impossible that “Out, Moonshine” was staged earlier, in September 1986. In her article published in the TEII book mentioned in Chapter 2, Lyubov Gurevich writes that there was a convocation of the V.V. Mayakovsky Friends Club at the Vodokanal Club about a month after the meeting at the Café Vostok which supposedly took place in August.  According to Gurevich, this (September?) meeting was the first and also last official meeting of the Mayakovsky Club Friends members. Gurevich remembers Novikov and Bugaev as speakers, Sergey Kuryokhin, the leader of Pop-Mekhanika, improvising on the piano, and a movie about “Communists on Screen”. Gurevich writes that she first misinterpreted this movie as Evgeny Yufit’s pop art approach to Soviet history before she found out that it was in fact an official documentary shown by request of the Vodokanal Club management . (TEII 2007, p 257.)

Ksenia Novikova’s chronicle includes the “Thematic Evening” on 21 December 1986 without any supplementary information about the nature of the Mayakovsky Friends Club performance: "Thematic evening entitled Introducing: Youth Amateur Associations. Among the participants: V.V. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Chairman: Sergei ‘Afrika’ Bugaev."

By contrast, the chronicle has another Mayakovsky Friends Club event at the Vodokanal Club: “The fragments of the New Design Exhibition”, dated 27 September 1986. It has the following lineup of artists: Oleg Kotelnikov, Vadim Ovchinnikov, Timur Novikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Vladislav Gutsevich, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev, and Inal Savchenkov. To be exact, this exhibition is listed as a simultaneous event of both the Mayakovsky Friends Club and the Club for the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity (MMOMA 2012, p. 275) on a poster in Timur Novikov’s family collection (without a lineup of artist).

“The fragments of the New Design Exhibition”, Выставка фрагментнов новых офромлений, is actually the first entry in the club book of the Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity for 1986. The column исполнители, “performers” states “художники клуба отв. Новиков Т. П.” – club artists, person in charge: T. P. Novikov. more>>. Judging by the exhibtion title, it could have been a display of works shown or created during Pop Mekhanika performances. Novikov‘s name appears in both the Mayakovsky Friends Club and the Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity, and this somehow allows to involve both clubs in “The fragments of the New Design Exhibition”.

On the other hand, the chronicle does not list both clubs for the thematic evening on 21 December 1986, although it also has an entry in the club book of the Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity: Смотр-конкурс молодежных объединений Дыерж. р-на. / Review-competition of youth associations of the Dzerzhinksky district. But in this case, the performers listed are not from the New Artists, with the exception of Gutsevich. Obviously, Gutsevich’s significance for both clubs is different from that of Novikov‘s and doesn’t easily extent activities to either clubs. Therefore, the chronicle does not refer to both clubs in this specific case.

Resuming the information, there must have been a Mayakovsky Friends Club performance at the Vodokanal Club in 1986 on 21 December and an exhibition on 27 September. Which of the two saw “Out Moonshine” performance is now difficult to say. If Gurevich’s memory is correct, it happened during the “fragments of the New Design Exhibition”. Or perhaps Gurevich’s memory failed her, and she remembered the December performance.

What can be said almost for certain is that the premises of the Vodokanal Club played no further role for the Mayakovsky Friends Club after 1986. In his report about the first year of the Club‘s activities, discussed in the next chapter, Novikov doesn‘t mention the Vodokanal Club at all – not even in regard to “Out, Moonshine”.

Synopsis and Introduction

Chаpter 1. Soviet Clubs and Houses of Culture

Chapter 2. Chapter 2. Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky

Chapter 3: Source material and references

Chapter 4. Index of documents 1986-1987

Chapter 5. Document A. Charter of the New Creative Association

Chapter 6. Document B. Application by the New Creative Association, 4. 8. 1986

Chapter 7. Document C. Application by the New Creative Association, 5. 8. 1986

Chapter 8. Document D. Front page of the Mayakovsky Friends Club charter, 3. 9. 1986

Chapter 9. Document E. Registration card for young associations

Chapter 10. Document F. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Working plan for 1986-1987

Chapter 11. Document G. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Invitation card, 21. 12. 1986

Chapter 12. Document H. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Report about the first year (Sept.86-Sep. 87)

Chapter 13. The Report about the first year and corresponding New Artists chronicle entries

Chapter 14. Document I. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Application to the Main Department of Culture 1987

Chapter 15. The Nch-Vch Club

Chapter 16. The Mayakovsky Friends Club Party 1990

Chapter 17. The Mayakovsky Friends Club in Europe, 1988-1989

Chapter 18. The Mayakovsky Friends Club in the USA, 1989-1990

Chapter 19. Concluding remarks


Research / text / layout: Hannelore Fobo, March 2020 / August 2021

Uploaded 17 August 2021
Last updated 22 August 2021