Red Love : A Reader On Alexandra Kollontai / Kollontai: A Play by Agneta Pleijel
Red Love stems from a yearlong research by CuratorLab at Konstfack University together with Tensta konsthall.
Alexandra Kollontai was a prominent Russian revolutionary, a commissar of Social Welfare after the October revolution in 1917, and a long-term Soviet ambassador to Sweden. As a cofounder of the Zhenotdel, the “Women's Department” in the communist party, she introduced abortion rights, secularized marriage, and provided paid maternity leave. Kollontai considered “comradely love” to be an important political force, elemental in shaping social bonds beyond the limitations of property relations.
A number of artists and thinkers revisit Kollontai's ideas on the politics of love and their relation to current political, social, and feminist struggles. The publication also includes the biographical play Kollontai from 1977 by distinguished Swedish writer Agneta Pleijel.
Awarded the prize Svensk bokkonst (Swedish Book Art) for 2020.