Philosophy of the Encounter

Tatiana Istomina

August 26 – November 12, 2019

LECTURE

November 5, 5 – 6 PM

JCM 2121

Philosophy of the Encounter (2016–18) by Tatiana Istomina is based on the story of Hélène Rytman, who was murdered by her husband, the prominent philosopher Louis Althusser, in 1980. Althusser’s texts continue to be appreciated while Rytman has been forgotten despite her role in Althusser’s life and influence on his intellectual career. In death, as in life, Rytman is silenced—an insignificant woman lost in the shadow of her famous husband. Istomina reconstructs their story from Hélène’s point of view and explores the implications of these events on Althusser's philosophical theories. Never before seen together in its entirety, Philosophy of the Encounter is a multi-media body of work consisting of sculptures made in collaboration with artist Mona Sharma, a puppet-performance staged for video, works on paper, and an artist book. 

Tatiana Istomina is a Russian-born multi-media artist and writer living in New York. Her projects have been featured in exhibitions across the United States and abroad, including the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Blue Star Contemporary, The Drawing Center, the Bronx Museum, Gaîté Lyrique, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the AAF Prize for Fine Arts, a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation grant, Puffin Foundation grant, and the Spillways Fellowship. Istomina holds a PhD in Geophysics from Yale University and an MFA from Parsons New School. She is also a contributor to several art magazines, including Art in America, Hyperallergic, and Brooklyn Rail.