project fiskultura

Fiskultura is the ideological essence behind body practices of ex-communist European societies - such as mass stadium celebrations, promotion of daily exercise routines and amateur sports competitions. The term literally means physical culture, and it was a government-enforced policy that promoted ideas of self-improvement and health to all. It was an efficiency strategy to secure the building of a better (socialist) society – it’s members fit for work and defence. This was embodied in a figure of Fiskulturnik – a cultured athletic worker. The ‘type’ was visually explored and exploited throughout 80 odd years of communist existence in Europe, be it by Avant –guard constructivists, socialist realists or the popular culture of these societies.

Performing Ideology – I am Fiskulturnik!

Associate artists

The tasks ahead are complex and vast…

Comrade viewer,
As you commence exercising
Your body becomes the New body -
Constructed by Avant guard post - revolutionary experimentation
Idealised by socialist realism
Shaped and scientifically choreographed by Central Committees.

Body observed from the gallery by the president and his aparatchiks
Body that belonged to the State and party policies
Body lost due to historical and political upheaval
Body buried in a plethora of archived experiences
Body of Fiskulturnik.

The first task of PK Fiskulturnik is to create situations in which physical exercise becomes artistic language.

The second task is to motivate viewers to participate and become a part of that language.

The third, and the most important task, is to unite all the participants into a collective art-body.