This book addresses late-Soviet and post-Soviet art in Armenia in the context of turbulent transformations from the late 1980s to 2004. It explores the emergence of 'contemporary art' in Armenia from within and in opposition to the practices, aesthetics and institutions of Socialist Realism and National Modernism. This historical study outlines the politics (liberal democracy), aesthetics (autonomous art secured by the gesture of the individual artist), and ethics (ideals of absolute freedom and radical individualism) of contemporary art in Armenia and points towards its limitations. Through the historical investigation, a theory of post-Soviet art historiography is developed, one that is based on a dialectic of rupture and continuity in relation to the Soviet past. As the first English-language study on contemporary art in Armenia, the book is of prime interest for artists, scholars, curators and critics interested in post-Soviet art and culture and in global art historiography. -- .

The concept of a public sphere has traditionally been associated with urban spaces. Public Spheres After Socialism contests this in light of shifts of perspective in the East and West after the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.Public Spheres After Socialism draws together contemporary experiences from Armenia - an interesting site of cultural and political cross-currents - Germany, Austria, France and the United Kingdom. It reconsiders the concept of a public sphere as a figurative, or mythical, location in which the members of a society shape and determine its values and ask to what extent this public sphere exists or is viable today. Among the ideas presented in this groundbreaking volume are the cultures of public time, everyday memorials, urban reconstruction, film as a dialogic site, and the mapping of a post-socialist city in youth culture.Esteemed academics cover a wide range of issues, including public spaces and monuments, urban reconstruction, film, new media and communication. They explore the major shifts in theory and consider how the dualism of the Cold War has been replaced by the single ideological position of globalized consumerism.