About Svetlana Boym

Svetlana Boym (b. 1966) is a writer, theorist, and media artist who leads parallel lives.

She is the author of The Future of Nostalgia (Basic Books, 2001), (translations into Serbian, Italian, Polish (partial), Chinese, Hebrew, Turkish, Spanish, forthcoming), the novel Ninochka (SUNY Press, 2003), Kosmos: Remembrances of the Future (with photos by Adam Bartos, 2003), Territories of Terror: Memories and Mythologies of Gulag in Contemporary Russian-American Art (exhibition catalogue, 2006) and forthcoming Architecture of the Off-Modern (Columbia University, 2008) and Another Freedom: Art, Philosophy, Politics (2008).

Her recent media exhibits include “Nostalgic Technologies” (2006 in Ljubljana and Cambridge), “Unforeseen Past” (2007, NYC) and “Skipping the Page” (Book Art Center, NYC). She presented her work and lectured in the Freud’s Museum at Vienna Artweek, at Frieze Art Fair, London, Kitchen, NYC, Apexart, NYC, and the MediaCenter at Karlsruhe in the City Museum in Ljubljana. She has contributed to many journals, including Art Forum, ArtMargins, Cabinet, Critical Inquiry, Representations, Poetics Today, and Harpers’s Magazine. In yet another life she wrote a play The Woman Who Shot Lenin, performed at the Charlestown Working Theater in Boston.

When not doing art projects, Svetlana Boym teaches in Comparative Literature at Harvard University and is an Associate of the Graduate School of Design. Native of St. Petersburg, Russia, she now lives and works in Cambridge, USA and on svetlanaboym.com

To learn more about her academic interests and publications, please visit her staff pages at Harvard's Department of Comparative Literature.

2006-2008 Lectures and Artistic Presentations

• Frieze Art Fair,  London, UK (October 2006)
• Freud's Museum, Vienna ArtWeek, Vienna, Austria (March 2006)
• Puebla, Mexico
• Ljubljana City Museum, Ljubljana City of Women Festival, Slovenia (October 2006)
• Cranbrook Graduate School, Cranbrook, MI (January 2007)
• Columbia Univ., Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture (November 2006)
•  Boston University Art Gallery, Territories of Terror (Curator; October 2006)
• Kitchen, Performance Art Space,  New York (April 2006)
• Stanford University, Conference on "Extreme Contemporary" (January 2007)
• Apexart, New York City  (Stalking with Stories: Pioneers of the Immemorial)
• Miami Art Basel (NADA)
• New York, CUNY Graduate Center, April 2008
• Universita Ca Foscari/Teatro di Piazza Santa Margherita, Venice, Italy, April 2008
• Universita di Bologna, April 20008
• Cambridge UK, Distinguished Scholar and Artist Workshop, April, 2008

2006-2008 Solo and Group Exhibits

• Transit Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA  (Solo show February -April, 2007)
• Ljubljana Metelkovo-Factory Rog (Solo show, October 2006)
• Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York (Unforeseen Past , September 2007
• The Center for Book Arts, New York, (Skipping The Page, January 2008)
• Nostalgia: Images and Sounds, Teatro di Piazza Santa Margherita, Venice, Italy (Multimedia Performance, April 2008)