We sit down and interview Keti Chukhrov about her book “Practicing the Good: Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism” to discuss libidinal economy and its transformation from Soviet Socialism to Neo-Liberal Market Reforms. Also, we discuss the concepts of ‘Non-Self’ tied up with the works of Evald Ilyenkov and about Russian Cosmism.

Keti Chukhrov is an associate professor at the Department of Сultural Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. In 2012-2017 she has been the head of Theory and Research department at the National Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow. Chukhrov has authored numerous texts on art theory, culture, politics, and philosophy. Her postdoctoral dissertation dealt with the anthropology and ontology of performativity. Her full-length books include: To Be—To Perform. ‘Theatre’ in Philosophic Critique of Art (Spb: European Un-ty, 2011), and Pound &£ (Logos, 1999) and a volume of dramatic writing: Just Humans (2010). Currently she is a Marie Sklodowska fellow in UK. Her present research interests and publications deal with 1.the impact of soviet economy on the ethical epistemes of historical socialism, with 2. performance studies and 3. Neo-humanism in the conditions of post-human theories. With her video-play “Love-machines” she participated at the Bergen Assembly and “Specters of Communism” (James Gallery, CUNY, NY, 2015). Her Latest video-play “Communion” was in the program of the Kansk video film festival (Moscow, 2016) and at the Ljubljana Triennial U-3 “Beyond the Globe (2016, cur. B. Groys) Practicing the Good
Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism (2020, Minnesota Press) and numerous E-Flux articles you can find here: www.e-flux.com/search?q=Keti+Chukhrov