Russia – Art Resistance and the Conservative-Authoritarian Zeitgeist
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i Russia – Art Resistance and the Conservative- Authoritarian Zeitgeist This book explores how artistic strategies of resistance have survived under the conservative- authoritarian regime which has been in place in Russia since 2012. It discusses the conditions under which artists work as aesthetics change and the state attempts to define what constitutes good taste. It examines the approaches artists are adopting to resist state oppression and to question the present system and attitudes to art. The book addresses a wide range of issues related to these themes, considers the work of individual artists and includes some discussion of contemporary theatre as well as the visual arts. Lena Jonson is Associate Professor and a Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Andrei Erofeev is a widely published art historian, curator, and former head of the contemporary art section of the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. ii Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series Series url: www.routledge.com/ Routledge- Contemporary- Russia- and- Eastern- Europe- Series/ book- series/ SE0766 71 EU- Russia Relations, 1999– 2015 From Courtship to Confrontation Anna- Sophie Maass 72 Migrant Workers in Russia Global Challenges of the Shadow Economy in Societal Transformation Edited by Anna- Liisa Heusala and Kaarina Aitamurto 73 Gender Inequality in the Eastern European Labour Market Twenty- five Years of Transition since the Fall of Communism Edited by Giovanni Razzu 74 Reforming the Russian Industrial Workplace International Management Standards meet the Soviet Legacy Elena Shulzhenko 75 Identity and Nation Building in Everyday Post- Socialist Life Edited by Abel Polese, Jeremy Morris, Oleksandra Seliverstova and Emilia Pawłusz 76 Cultural Forms of Protest in Russia Edited by Birgit Beumers, Alexander Etkind, Olga Gurova, and Sanna Turoma 77 Women in Soviet Film The Thaw and Post- Thaw Periods Edited by Marina Rojavin and Tim Harte 78 Russia – Art Resistance and the Conservative- Authoritarian Zeitgeist Edited by Lena Jonson and Andrei Erofeev iii Russia – Art Resistance and the Conservative- Authoritarian Zeitgeist Edited by Lena Jonson and Andrei Erofeev iv First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Lena Jonson and Andrei Erofeev; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Lena Jonson and Andrei Erofeev to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 73301- 5 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 18685- 6 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Out of House Publishing v Contents List of illustrations vii Notes on contributors x Preface xiii 1 Introduction 1 LENA JONSON PART I The conservative zeitgeist and Russian cultural policy 25 2 The ‘Russian World’: genetically modified conservatism, or why ‘Russian culture’ matters 27 ILYA KALININ 3 The new conservative cultural policy and visual art 48 LENA JONSON 4 Neo- traditionalist fits with neo- liberal shifts in Russian cultural policy 65 ALEXANDER BIKBOV 5 Daughterland: contemporary Russian messianism and neo- conservative visuality 84 MARIA ENGSTRÖM 6 Cultural policy and conservatism in Hungary: a parallel development 103 ESZTER BABARCZY PART II The state of affairs: voices from the Russian art scene 125 7 Culture as the enemy: contemporary Russian art under the authoritarian regime 127 ANDREI EROFEEV vi vi Contents 8 Voices from the art scene: interviews with Russian artists 134 ANDREI EROFEEV AND IRINA KOCHERGINA PART III Artistic counterstrategies 163 9 Dissensus and ‘shimmering’: tergiversation as politics 165 DANIIL LEIDERMAN 10 Humour as a bulletproof vest: artists embracing an ironic zeitgeist 182 HELENA GOSCILO 11 Demontage of attractions 209 STANISLAV SHURIPA AND ANNA TITOVA 12 Wartime intimacy: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and the Chto Delat school for engaged art 227 JONATHAN BROOKS PLATT 13 A dilemma for the contemporary artist: the ‘revolutionary pessimism’ of Roman Osminkin 247 MARK LIPOVETSKY 14 Radical art actionism 264 ANDREI EROFEEV 15 Petr Pavlenskii and his actions 271 PER- ARNE BODIN 16 A dialogue about art 279 PETR PAVLENSKII AND PAVEL YASMAN PART IV Theatre: a parallel development 293 17 Theatre in a period of archaization 295 PAVEL RUDNEV 18 Nonconformist theatre in Russia: past and present 304 KRISTINA MATVIENKO Index 318 vii Illustrations 2.1 Monument to Vladimir the Great 33 2.2 The capital city of the Republic of Kalmykiya, Elista. Lenin Square 35 5.1 Aleksei Belyaev- Gintovt, Patria Filia, 2008 90 5.2 Aleksei Belyaev- Gintovt, Patria Philia, 2004 91 5.3 Aleksei Belyaev- Gintovt, Sevastopol Is a Russian City, 2008 93 5.4 Aleksei Belyaev- Gintovt and Andrei Iryschkov, Read My Lips, 2014 94 5.5 Doping- Pong, The Birth of a Legend, 2013 95 5.6 Doping- Pong, Velikaya (Great Russia), 2015 96 5.7 Dasha Volosevich, still from Cuckoo, 2015 98 5.8 Anonymous, Natalya Poklonskaya as Nyash- Katechon, 2014 98 6.1 The National Theatre with a detail of a free- standing gate by Miklós Melocco, 2002 107 6.2 Monument to the fiftieth anniversary of the 1956 revolution by the artist group i- ypszilon, commissioned by the socialist government, 2006 110 6.3 Memorial of the 1956 revolution by Róbert Csíkszentmihályi, 2006 111 6.4 The reconstructed monument to István Tisza, 2014 116 6.5 The building of the House of Terror 117 6.6 The monument for the victims of the German occupation (2014) with protest signs against the monument in the foreground, Szabadság tér, Budapest 118 6.7 Kriszta Nagy, Viktor Orbán, 2014. From her exhibition ‘You Can Hire Me to Paint Your Portrait’, Godot Gallery, 2014 121 8.1 Andrei Kuzkin, Circle- wise, 2008 135 8.2 Andrei Kuzkin, Innovation 2014, 2014 135 8.3 Irina Korina, Patternalism, 2015 137 8.4 Roman Mokrov, To Set Off (from the video Pustitsya v put), 2013 139 8.5 Anatolii Osmolovskii, Have You Done This? No, You Did! (Eto vy sdelali? Net, eto vy sdelali!), 2014 143 viii viii List of illustrations 8.6 Oleg Kulik (together with Mila Bredikhina), I Bite America and America Bites Me, 1997 145 8.7 Viktoriya Lomasko, Life Everywhere (Vsyudu zhizn), 2015 148 8.8 Vikentii Nilin, Riding the Police (from the Selfie Machine series), 2014 150 8.9 Pussy Riot, Chaika, 2016 152 8.10 Petr Pavlenskii, Carcass (Tusha), 2013 153 8.11 Petr Pavlenskii, Fixation (Fiksatsiya), 2013 154 8.12 Petr Pavlenskii, Freedom (Svoboda), 2014 155 8.13 Petr Pavlenskii, Threat (Ugroza), 2016 155 8.14 Darya Serenko, Silent Picket (Tikhii piket), 2016 158 9.1 Tatyana Antoshina, Olympus 172 9.2 Artem Loskutov, Monstratsiya (Monstration for Mocracy), 2015 178 10.1 Blue Noses, The New Holy Fools (Novye yurodivye), 1999 185 10.2 Blue Noses, Kitchen Suprematism (Kukhonnyi Suprematizm), 2005 186 10.3 Blue Noses, Sex- suprematism, 2005 186 10.4 Blue Noses, Kissing Cops: The Era of Mercy (Tseluyushchiesya militsionery: era miloserdiya), 2005 187 10.5 Blue Noses, Chechen Marilyn (Chechenskaya Merilin), 2005 188 10.6 Blue Noses, Kids from Our Block (Rebyata s nashego Dvora), 2004 189 10.7 Blue Noses, Video Gag, 2007 190 10.8 Blue Noses, The Motherland Knows: An ‘Artist’ Can Offend Anyone (Rodina znaet), 2000s 192 10.9 Sergei Elkin, ‘I Feel Like a Beast of Burden’ 195 10.10 Sergei Elkin, Two powers in collusion, Putin and the Orthodox Church 196 10.11 Sergei Elkin, Putin, Obama, and the Fly 198 10.12 Sergei Elkin, Putin and Baby- Medvedev 199 10.13 Sergei Elkin, Medvedev – the Cinderella 200 10.14 Sergei Elkin, Tajikistan Must Be Destroyed 201 10.15 Sergei Elkin, The Bandar- logs in Russian Eden 202 10.16 Sergei Elkin. Putin and Ukraine 203 11.1 Stanislav Shuripa and Anna Titova, from the project Apocalyptological Congress (Entrance Hall – Spectral Labyrinth), Collage, 2015 210 11.2 Stanislav Shuripa and Anna Titova, from the project Apocalyptological Congress (Congress Hall Chairs Signalling), Collage, 2015 216 12.1 Chto Delat, still from The Excluded 233 12.2 Chto Delat, still from Partisan Songspiel, A Belgrade Story, 2009 234 ix List of illustrations ix 12.3 Chto Delat School of Engaged Art, Prop from Becoming Zoya 240 12.4 Chto Delat School of Engaged Art, still from Looking for Zoya, I 241 12.5 Chto Delat School of Engaged Art, still from Looking for Zoya, II 242 Table 4.1 Two parallel histories on Russia, 2000– 15 72 x Notes on contributors Eszter Babarczy is Assistant Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, Moholy- Nagy University of Art, Budapest. Since training as a cultural historian and a philosopher in Budapest and New York, she has worked as an academic and journalist/ editor. Publications include hundreds of essays and diverse political commentary in the Hungarian- and English-language media over the past thirty years. Alexander Bikbov is Professor and Deputy Head of the Centre for Contemporary Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Philosophy Faculty, Moscow State University.