In recent times, we have been at loose ends. Connections dissolved, supports gave way. Existence was cracked by inte- rior collapses. Its impenetrability became transparent, its perceptibility slid away from us. The purposeful process of coming into being, transformed itself into centrifugal vectors, into a fan of dispersing impulses. Meanings detached themselves from things and began to swim around in space. The sta- ble structure reversed itself into an enchanting game in the weightlessness of floating meaning.

From a social standpoint, this period meant an identity crisis for the Soviet avant-garde. The illegality of the underground, the pathos of survival and opposition belong to the past. For those who had come out of the catacombs, the light of day meant a new and strange reality. Ideological and political pressure were superseded by cultural alienation, by a lack of artistic infrastructure, of an adequate articulation. The perspectives of adaptation vanished behind the horizon. Abruptly, borders were opened up, marking the end of previous isolation. The discovery of this world led to the recognition of mechanisms of fashion, to the capacity to manipulate the mass media market laws. The role of the "inner emigrant" became the role of the "envoy", "representa- tive", "authorized representative", in place of asceticism of hermetical life, quick money appeared. Brotherly ties in the underground became weaker. The decaying unity gave the new module life, individuality. The collective ethic made room for competitive thinking, thinking about success, and moral entropy. The sudden inundation of information acted like a shock, clouded the view. The broadening of perspectives expressed itself in the phenomenon of the decay of time. This category of the contemporary is preserved and dispenses with all connections to the past and future. The centrifuges of the epochs allows for weightlessness to come into being, there where a facility for the integration into the international elite is located, right next to the nostalgia for mental purity in the catacombs.

The differentiation of time is the symptom of an epistemological catastrophy. It is the and of the interlinking of generations and of the wholeness of tradition. The blocked entry to the catacombs closes off access to the aesthetic of the underground. In the past, artistic "metaphysics" were sanctioned by the metaphysics of the social being and society; the poetics of unde- mandingness was justified by the miserableness of existence in the catacombs; and the dominant features of conceptual modes were justified by an ideologically penetrated cultural base. Now, the social being gives himself up to the power of nature, and he condemns soz-art as a tactic of permanent sublimation. The surviving "metaphysics" surrender to occultism. Stepping out of the underground actualizes criteria like professionalism and brilliant ability. The process of de-ideologization characterizes the phenomenon of conceptual classicism.

The state of weightlessness is not identical to apathy or nirvana. On the contrary, it demands the exertion of will and the mobilization of all creative powers. Ideas, running in all directions, must be concentrated on one point, and meanings must be condensed into a homogenous clod. This world f loating in free space must receive connecting parts and strong supports. Yet, the world created in weightlessness is autonomous and in its own unique orbit. The meaning which gives it structure is no longer included in the universal chain of meaning. The quality of uniqueness requires the hyperbolization of the center. In the face of weightlessness, the structural elements cling frantically to a transparent rod. The personal strategy amounts to an exactly determined complex of problems–the phenomenon. In the face of weightless- ness, every creative gesture is rendered more difficult by the consciousness of its own primary cause. The formation of a new plane in the unique world becomes at the same time a return to its wellsprings, to its original basis, to its productive paradigms. The natural change of the world towards self-discovery requires simultaneously its seclusion in itself, selfref lection and self-revelation. Hence, the existence of this created world is at once impenetrable and transparent: capable of being perceived but not grasped. In the face of weightlessness, being finds refuge in the recognition of its own relativity. Being is confirmed through the confirmation of not being.