Tatlin, El Lisicki, and Kosovel

Abstract

This paper begins by analyzing the concept and term “cons” and connecting it with the typical Soviet practice of shortening words (loks, veshch′), which was also adopted by some European avantgardists (merz, mont). Kosovel used the original word cons to denote his own contribution to European constructivism; it denotes a “thing” (veshch′) in transition from composition to construction, or from a poem to cons. – Among other things, the Tatlin-Kosovel relationship can also be discerned from the manifesto Mehanikom (To the Mechanics), in which Kosovel reacts to the polemic regarding Tatlin’s “machine art” and, like Lisicki and Erenburg, tries to rehabilitate Tatlin and thus also his own constructivism. Kosovel thus talks about the “human machine” and demands a poster campaign to destroy the “human machine.” At this level, Kosovel also perceives the difference between Marinetti’s “mechanical human being” and Tatlin’s ideologically manipulated “human machine,” as understood by the Berlin Dadaists. – El Lisicki had an impact on Kosovel through his “mobile philosophy” and understanding of imaginary space. Conses are thus beyond contemplation, and urge movement, action, and a critical attitude towards the world. Following Lisicki’s example, Kosovel introduced emptiness in his conses, which changes into a plano-convex and plano-concave space, into letters in space, where there is no more perspective and gravitation. In his spatially conceptualized conses, Kosovel made his poetry dynamic and kinetic in order to reach the reader again. The use of engineering sketches, geometric material, and spatial definitions of conses effectively combined the content and form into a new organic unit, as applied in the work of Lisicki, Tatlin, and Chicherin, and in Zelinski’s constructivism. Letters grew into space; there was no more painting and poetry, but only architecture and constructiveness connected with “discipline and organization of the spirit”.