The State Vladimir Mayakovsky Museum, AVC Charity Foundation and Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art present “Birds and Digits” exhibition project under “The World and the Rest” festival, dedicated to Velimir Khlebnikov’s 130th birthday anniversary (1885–1922). The exhibition features both lifetime books by one of the key Russian avant-garde poets and contemporary drawings, videos, objects, sculptures and installations inspired by his art.

Velimir Khlebnikov is an outstanding phenomenon in Russian poetry of the twentieth century, a member of “Gilea” futuristic group, and a man who was recognized “the greatest poet of the time” while alive (Roman Jakobson). His personality and talent enchanted such people as Vladimir and David Burliuk, Pavel Filonov, Yuri Annenkov, Vladimir Tatlin and many others up to these days. Saturation of digital and avian toposes draws attention from the first glance. The exhibition “Birds and Digits” presents their visual embodiments as the significant elements of the grand historical linguistic project that Khlebnikov had worked on for the whole life.

The exhibition is conceived as “a visible echo” of the poet’s lyrics. Along with the lifetime books of the 1910s and the posthumous editions of the late 1920s (“Unedited Khlebnikov”), the exhibition features the newer works by contemporary artists. The central exhibit, “Birds and Digits” album, gave the name to the whole project. It refers to the artist’s unique style and contains over 50 printed graphic sheets by Moscow and St. Petersburg authors. A special place is given to portraits of Khlebnikov, which were made in different techniques, and present him as a serious mathematician, a contemplative ornithologist, or the mythological Sirin with the body of a bird and the head of a poet. Peter Miturich’s “Spatial graphics”, established in the 1920s and reconstructed by his son in the 1990s, opens the hall of installations.

“Birds and Digits” exhibition — curated by Mikhail Karasik.

“The World and the Rest” festival — curated by Dmitriy Karpov.

Participants: Marina Alekseeva, Vasily Vlasov, Sergey Denisov, Alexander Jikia, Mikhail Karasik, Grigory Katznelson, Alexander Lavrentiev, Kira Matissen, Mikhail Molochnikov, Valery Orlov, Peter Perevesentsev, Alexander Podobed, Victor Remishevsky, Dmitry Saenko, Andrey Suzdalev, Leonid Tishkov, Alexander and Olga Florensky, Petr Shvetsov, Anton Khlabov, Vera Khlebnikova, Sergey Yakunin.

The exhibition is held under the support of the Moscow Government, the Department of Culture of Moscow, the AVC Charity Foundation, the State Vladimir Mayakovsky Museum, Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, the Russian Academy of Arts, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and Gallery Elysium.