USA-CCCP. Points of Contact.
Catherine Mannick – (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Correspondence 1979 – 1990

Letter N (Autumn 1987) – Part 2: ASSA

The word “ASSA” has a double reference – to Timur Novikov’s art squat “ASSA Gallery”, presented in pictures 4 to 9 of Letter N, and to Sergey Solovyev’s film “ASSA” from 1987, which featured Sergei Bugaev in the main role, as well as the rock star Viktor Tsoi from the band KINO. But it started its career as a slogan.

Regarding the origin of “ASSA”, there are at different legends; the following three examples refer to an article from 2017/2019 more >>. Curator Ekaterina Andreeva thinks that New Artist Oleg Kotelnikov created it and that it is “etymologically related to the word ‘assasin’”, while Oleg Kolomeychuk, a.k. Garry or Garik ASSA (see Letter I), claims Oleg Grigoryev‘s authorship. Alexei Ipatovtsev, media manager of the band Aquarium, proposes yet another version:

Assa Yeh Yeh was most likely taken from Georgie Fame's 1964 hit “Yeh Yeh”. The British band Matt Bianco covered the song in 1985, and it immediately hit the Western charts.…The chorus of the song is “I say yeh yeh“, but Russians clearly hear “Assa yeh yeh”. The New Artists stuck to that version.

The were also attempts to decode ACCA / ASSA as an abbreviation, reading the Cyrillic C either as Russian S or Latin C,whcih led to Ассоциация советских свободных анархистов / Associaciia sovetskikh svobodnykh anarkhistov / The Association of Free Soviet Anarchists (Oleg Kolomeychuk) and the Italian word “accademia” (Oleg Kotelnikov), respectively more >>.

When exactly the slogan “ASSA” became popular can no longer be determined – possibly in 1985, because it appeared on a painted cloth during the Happy New Year Pop Mekhanika performance from December 1985 (see Letter I). At least this seems to be the earliest documentation of the slogan in a painting. This would support Ipatovtsev’s version. Likewise, one of Kozlov’s undated notes from 1985 or 1986 displays ACCA in a play of words mostly written in reversed order, where ACCA, a palindrome, reads the same in both directions.

The artist also used “ASSA” ironically in his letter from October 1986 (“ужас, кошмар — АССА” / horror, nightmare – ASSA Letter L >>) and then again two months later, in Letter M, as an exclamation of congratulations – (“Здорово, полная АССА!!!” / Great – full ASSA!!!! Letter M >>). Yet his attitude towards the slogan was ambivalent. In his opinion, ASSA lacked grandeur, and 1987, he designed a T-shirt with a portrait of Georgy Guryanov and the slogan АСС-Е СМЕРТЬ / Death to ASSA.

Novikov, for his part, introduced the term in his writing from 1985 “Процесс перестройки в творчестве «Новых»” / Perestroika in the work of the New Artists”:

ASSA. "ASSA to the masses" is “Novye”'s slogan [the “New Artists’” slogan, editor’s note] since 1984. Currently “ASSA” prepares its assault on the mass media of the USSR and other countries. And this assault won't cease until “Novye” decides that the idea is outdated.[1]

Whether the New Artists did use the slogan as early as 1984, as Novikov was claiming, remains a matter for speculation, since retrospective labelling was typical for Novikov. The same goes for the name of Novikov’s gallery – “галерея ‘АССА’”, “ASSA” Gallery. In his catalogue for the Happy New Year exhibition, which he edited some time in 1986 – after the exhibition – Novikov added a list of exhibitions carried out at ASSA Gallery going back to 1983 more >>, but it is unlikely that the name was coined that early. Evgenij Kozlov, a regular visitor to the place since 1981 more >>, if not ealier, called it “Timur’s place”.[2] Only towards the end, before it had to close in the summer of 1987, he referred to it as ASSA Gallery.

What can be said for sure is that by 1986, ASSA had fully established itself – both as a slogan and as a name for Novikov’s gallery, although with regard to the latter, it was often used indiscriminately for the entire period of the gallery’s existence.

ASSA Gallery

In the exhibition catalogue "Новые художники / The New Artists", Ekaterina Andreeva writes

Novikov succeeded in creating an anarchist movement that operated according to the rules of professional art communities. In 1980, he turned his room in a communal flat on Voinov Street, 24 (present-day Shpalernaya), then in process of resettlement before major renovations, into ASSA Gallery, an exhibition hall and squat for artists and musicians whose windows faced the so-called Big House (local KGB headquarters) and were hence curtained.[3]

As the other tenants left the flat one by one, Novikov gradually extended his activity to most of the other rooms (apparently, an elderly lady stayed through the end). By the time it had to close, in spring or early summer 1987, the venue had become quite prominent. It was there where the first New Artists group show took place in 1984, documented by Kozlov (see letter G). The same year, Kozlov staged his “Fashion Show” photo shoot there (see Letter K). He also used it to drop off his paintings after exhibitions:

Transporting works to Timur’s place was a rather cumbersome thing to do, and after the exhibition I was not particularly eager to bring them back home, all the less because I already lived in Peterhof at that time. After all, who wants to walk alone at 23:30, carrying some 10-15 paintings, take the tram, then the tube, travel 45 minutes by suburban train, then by bus and finally drag the paintings upstairs to the fifth floor into a two-room flat? (Artchronika, Moscow, 2010)  more >>

Kozlov’s ASSA Gallery vintage prints from Letter N display the artist’s own work (page 7) as well as works by Timur Novikov (page 6), Sergei Bugaev (pages 5, 8 and, most probably, 9) and a large painting by Bugaev, Oleg Kotelnikov and Andrei Krisanov (page 4) – Timur’s flat was a perfect place for creating joint works. Kozlov almost never participated in this type of common activity, nor did he paint his own paintings there, since he needed a private space to carry out his (often highly complex) compositions. But there were occasional exceptions, and he remembers spraying his large graffiti work “Ya-YA” for the 1985 “Happy New Year” exhibition (see Letter I) at Novikov’s place more >>.

Because of its easy-going atmosphere and the large number of works by different artists, ASSA Gallery attracted many international visitors. At different times, pictures for the preselection of the forthcoming Swedish exhibition were taken on its premises, and in July 1987, Björn Lyrvall, vice-consul of the Swedish consulate, sent the Kulturhuset some pictures with works by Evgenij Kozlov he took “in the (now vacated) House on Voinova Street”, that is, at Novikov’s studio more >>.  

When exactly Lyrvall took those pictures is unknown, but Kozlov’s “ASSA Gallery” views from Letter N must have been taken around the same time, as his pictures partly match those of the Kulturhuset preselection. At any rate, they were not taken earlier than 1986, since the last picture, no. 9, displays the painting “Leningrad-Stockholm”, thus referring to the Swedish project which started in spring 1986. A number of similar “ASSA” vintage prints from the same film are in Kozlov’s archive. Most bear his signature on the reverse and indicate the author of the work documented. Additionally, two pictures are supplied with a note, “Выставка в Галлерее [sic] Т. Новикова” /  Exhibition at T. Novikov’s Gallery and “Выставка в Галлерее [sic] Т. Новикова „АССА“” /  Exhibition at T. Novikov’s “ASSA” Gallery, respectively.

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov ASSA Gallery, with Kozlov's ”Portrait of Guryanov” and visitors, 1986/1987 E-E archival number E-E-pho-Y011-opc-f.jpg		Reverse of the print (left) with notes Выставка в Галлерее [sic] Т. Новикова N. 35. ART. E. Козлов /E-E/ Евгений Козлов Exhibition at T. Novikov’s Gallery. N. 35. ART. E. KOZLOV /E-E/ Evgenij Kozlov E-E archival number E-E-pho-Y011-opc-f.jpg
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov ASSA Gallery, with paintings by Sergei Bugaev. 1986/1987 E-E archival number E-E-pho-Y036-op		Reverse of the print (left) Выставка в Галлерее [sic] Т. Новикова „АССА“. (С. Бугаев) (Искусство в СССР)  Exhibition at T. Novikov’s “ASSA” Gallery. (S.Bugaev) (Art in the USSR) E-E archival number E-E-pho-Y036-op

As there were always paintings on the walls of ASSA Gallery – a permanent exhibition of sorts – it is difficult to say whether Kozlov’s pictures document an exhibition in the proper sense of the word. But there are actually visitors in some of the pictures from Kozlov’s archive, and besides, all works are neatly displayed without intersecting each other. We may therefore assume it was a “real” exhibition, perhaps the closing one of ASSA Gallery.

Kozlov’s work on page 7 is a large portrait of Timur Novikov painted on jute, “Portrait of Timur on Horseback” from 1985. Novikov is standing next to it holding an inflatable dragon, a children’s toy used for a Pop Mekhanika performance at the Palace of Youth (“The Goat Concert or Introduction to Pop Mechanics”, 20 October 1986) more >>. On the left, painted directly on the wall, is a sample of Inal Savchenkov’s figurative graffiti art.

“Timur on Horseback”, inspired by a picture from the photo shoot with Novikov, Alakhov, Verichev and their Dutch friend Johan (see Letter J, page 3), was exhibited on stage in Riga, during a Pop Mekhanika concert featuring Westbam on 15 April 1987 more >>. The painting became quite prominent as the logotype of the Swedish exhibition “The New from Leningrad” (see Letter N, Part 1 >>). It was printed on the catalogue cover, posters and invitation cards, although, surprisingly, the painting itself wasn’t displayed at the Kulturhuset and disappeared; many years later, Kozlov learned that it had been sold.

Kozlov’s portrait of Georgy Guryanov from 1985 was also displayed at the ASSA Gallery exhibition, with Sergei Bugaev's work on paper and a poster applied to the lower, unpainted half of the jute material. Like “Timur on Horseback” – its “twin” – it was part of the Kulturhuset preselection, but didn’t make it to Stockholm and disappeared. It reappeared in 2010 as a painting in the collection of Sergei Bugaev and became part of a well-publicised litigation over ownership between four artists, including Kozlov, and Bugaev.[4]

ASSA – the film

To a larger public, the name “ASSA”, however, relates not to Timur Novikov’s place but to Sergey Solovyev’s film “ASSA”, a Mosfilm production shot in Yalta in the winter of 1987. The film features Sergei Bugaev as “Bananan boy” and, to a degree, the Leningrad art and music scene – several of those who gathered at Pop Mekhanika concerts: Boris Grebenshikov of Aquarium wrote some of the music, and Novikov, Guryanov and Krisanov were given minor roles as members of a band entertaining guests in a restaurant; Viktor Tsoi of the band KINO performed in the film’s final scene. Novikov played the keyboard, which, considering that – according to Kozlov – Novikov only played the jaw’s harp, he probably played without a sound. Guryanov and Krisanov, who were regular members of KINO, also performed with Tsoy for the final scene of the film. Besides, two of Joanna Stingray’s T-shirts “Save the World” made it to the final scene, as well. They can be seen on Dmitry Shumilov, Bananan’s friend who is taking Tsoy to the stage, and on bassist Andrey Krisanov.

The credit lines also mention Leningrad film-maker Evgeny Kondratev with a fragment of his short film “Nanainana” from 1984, as it was used to illustrate Bananan’s dream. Kondratev was a member of Evgeny Yufit’s Nekrorealist group, and Yufit exhibited with the New Artists, therefore everyone knew each other. In this way, Moscow discovered its eternal rival Leningrad.

Solovyev originally intended to call the film “Здравствуй, мальчик Бананан!”/ Hello, Bananan boy, adapting the title from a Soviet pop song from 1983 played by the ASSA restaurant band. According to Solevyev, Bugaev, however, convinced him that only the title “ASSA” would make the film a success External link >>.

The movie, released in Moscow in March 1988 and promoted with a large a large festival called “Арт-рок-парад” / Art Rock Parade, which included concerts, an exhibition, and a fashion show, not only became a success. It became a cult film – partly because the plot, a kind of surreal arthouse anti-mafia love story, was a new genre in Soviet cinematography, partly because of the set, which integrated crazy “ASSA-gallery-type” artefacts, which was also new, but in the main because the last scene promoted Viktor Tsoy’s “Мы ждём перемен” / We are waiting for changes. This KINO song, also called “Хочу перемен” / I want changes, was (first) performed in October 1986 during a KINO concert with Joanna Stingray at the Palace of Youth (see Letter N Part 1). After the release of the film, it immediately became associated with perestroika and later turned into a universal protest song in the Russian speaking world, for instance, in the 2020 Belarusian protests against President Lukashenko.  

ASSA was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics. Multiple discussions in Internet fora show that the film has lost nothing of its attraction and that the perestroika generation nostalgically remembers the liberating impact it had on them.[5]

E-E Kozlov took part in the Art Rock Parade exhibition more >>, but was not involved in the movie itself, although he says that he wouldn’t have minded to spend the winter in Yalta and be paid for it. Oddly enough, an article about “ASSA” that appeared in the monthly Soviet magazine “Soviet Woman” shows Sergei Bugaev standing in front Kozlov’s painting PCCC-ASU (see also Letter N Part 1).[6]

Hannelore Fobo, 10 September 2023.