Ilya and Emilia Kabakov in Conversation with Matthew Jesse Jackson: Artspeaks at the MCA

Presented by Artspeaks, University of Chicago, in partnership with the MCA

Ilya Kabakov’s narrative, collaborative, and performative works, developed over 30 years in Moscow at the height of the Cold War, both presaged and influenced the work of many younger artists today. Throughout his career, he has created ambitious multidisciplinary works that serve as monuments to history and memory, including a wide range of graphic books, paintings, drawings, installations, public projects, stage sets, costumes, theoretical texts, and extensive memoirs.

His wife and collaborator Emilia Kabakov and University of Chicago art historian Matthew Jesse Jackson join him in this talk to reflect on past projects and their place within contemporary art. A Russian-American conceptual artist of Jewish origin, Ilya Kabakov was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. He left the Soviet Union in 1987 and two years later began collaborating with Emilia. The two now live and work in Long Island.

A book signing takes place at 6:30 pm.