Sergei Shutov was born in 1955, in Potsdam, then East Germany. He presently lives and works in Moscow. He is a painter, sculptor, photographer, also known for his video-and sound installations – the first VJ performances in Russia are associ¬ated with him (1994, Ptyuch Club). At the age of 20, Shutov began his career at the Moscow State Museum of Oriental Art as a technician, and soon he became a member of the Moscow committee of graphic artists. Afterwards, he became a member of a number of art organisations and movements (some of them founded by him), among others the Mayakovsky’s Friends Club, with which he was an organic participant of the activity of “New Artists”, who largely influenced and subverted the art scene in St. Petersburg at the end of the 1980s. In 1987 he contributed to the cultic film Assa, directed by Solovyov, which became widely known as one of the milestones of contemporaneous Russian underground, rock culture and experimental film. His piece Silence originates in this period, and reveals the “sense of art historical referentiality” characteristic of his cre¬ative process. Shutov’s works are often permeated by irony and social critique. He has become one of the most important representative of Russian video and computer art. He represented Russia in the summer of 2001 at the Venice Biennale with his installation Abacus, which reflected in the “fears” or Russian society.