ANDREY GOROKHOV: KULEBAKI PROJECT AND CLIFFORD GEERTZ ANTHROPOLOGY

An Andrey Gorokhov’s lecture “Kulebaki Project and Clifford Geertz Anthropology” will be

delivered on November 13th at 13:00. All special event attendance is free. Registration is

obligatory (050 477 26 20 or write to [email protected]).

kulebaki.ru made an attempt to draw a portrait of a tiny industrial town in Vladimirskaya

Region, Russia. But the project did not run to the end. A book was planned to be published

with a lot of pictures and interviews with the inhabitants, as well as comments and thoughts.

As the theoretical basis, they used ideas (possibly misinterpreted) of Clifford Geertz,

American anthropologist, who put forward an idea of ‘thick description’ and gave an

original definition of culture. The trodden foot paths and concrete blocks in the streets

can be treated as cultural artefacts. Each and every object appears to be comprehended,

meaningful, and bear some traces.

The descriptor of the town turns to a maniacal hunter for traces and, simultaneously, to

an interpreter of these traces. In his ‘After The Fact’ book, Geertz shows it is impossible

to complete a description of anything; it is impossible to describe a town, a man or an

event. But it is also impossible to cease searching and decoding of traces. In the result,

kulebaki.ru was filled with chaotic documents of urbanistic medium.

The lecture will gradually pass to the discussion of Izolyatsia’s new project ‘Japanese

hipster\'s guide to Donetsk’