This new survey covers the rich and varied history of participatory art, from early happenings and performances to current practices that demand audience interaction.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a group of "unofficial" artists in Moscow—artists not recognized by the state, not covered by state-controlled media, and cut off from wider audiences—created artworks that gave artistic form to a certain historical moment.

Since their immigration from Russia to the West in 1987, conceptual artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have produced magnificent installations in a wide variety of forums: a circus stage, public square, orchestral hall, opera houses, and museums.

The fictitious hero of this 1984 installation is a lonely dreamer who develops an impossible project: to fly alone in cosmic space.