Research Catalogue

Anton Kats

Anton Kats (*1983 in Kherson/Ukraine) is an artist, musician and dancer based in London. He studied aesthetic and communication at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (2005–2008) and art in context at the University of Arts Berlin (2010-2011). After successfully finishing his Masters at Goldsmiths College he is currently continuing his studentship as a PhD candidate facilitating a practical artistic research project 'Moving Academy'. Kats practice addresses collective forms of research and knowledge as a spatial discipline. As result he inquires institutions being depository of knowledge and reveals different forms of learning necessary to generate critical and practical knowledge in-between, beyond and elsewhere. Combining pedagogy and artistic methods of investigation Kats proposes open and sustainable artistic platforms in which learning is addressed from within of the group and is driven by the context of participants. In his work Kats engages with structures of self-organization and self-education, marginalised people and the non-normative. Amongst others he has been working with non-governmental organizations in St. Petersburg, Berlin and Kingston developing artistic interventions and programs together with the residents of the cities margins. His goal is to explore the potential of collaboration within such social structures and jointly develop artistic methods that enable to independently take action. In his films Kats deals with anthropological methods in order to reveal moments of rupture in Post-Soviet countries such as Russia or the Ukraine and their politic and socio-economic processes.