Night with the Pioneer Leader. Actions, happenings, performances and ideas 1962-2016

We have just finished work on our new book, dedicated to our actions, happenings and art performances.

The hard copy can be ordered here.

Since 1962, or may be even earlier, Valera Cherkashin was interested in taking pictures of his own body. It was a possibility to express himself through photography, it was a fixation of a certain phases of his life.

Valera met Natasha in Moscow's metro in 1982. Natasha was involved in Valera's artistic life. She became not only the observer, but also the partisipant of some happenings.

At Perestroika time we did a number of happenings in Moscow Metro, such as "Privatization os Statues", Underground Wedding" and "Underground Beauty Contest: Miss 38"

In 1994 The Cherkashins were invited by Steve Yates, the curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico,to participate in the show and to create a personal exposition, which was installed in . After that they made a grand tour of 10 states of America from April until June. On this tour they visited many cities and museums and met a lot of people from various strata of society. For the first time in their life they were able to leave Russia and to travel abroad. They were deeply impressed by other countries, cultures and traditions and expressed their new inpressions in various performances and happenings. Since 1994, the Cherkashins have been working on the theme of "Travel as Art."

In October to November 1994 they went to Great Britain to continue their work on this theme. They've been to London, Oxford, Hereford, Cambridge, Yorkshire, Edinburgh.Later they traveled a lot and continued their work in Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Japan, Mongolia, China, Sweden, Switzerland and more...