Full Description
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 the state spells out a new state cultural policy, 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 besides its focus on the visual arts also some discussion of contemporary theatre. The book is interdisciplinary: its authors include artists, art historians, theatre critics, historians, linguists, sociologists and political scientists from Russia, Europe and the United States.
Contents
1. Introduction, Lena Jonson
Part I: The Conservative Zeitgeist and Russian Cultural Policy
2. The "Russian World", Genetically Modified Conservatism, or Why Culture Matters, Ilya Kalinin
3. The New State Cultural Policy and Visual Art, Lena Jonson
4. Neo-traditional Fits with Neo-liberal Shifts in Russian Cultural Policy since 2010, Alexander Bikbov
5. Daughterland [Rodina-Doch]: Contemporary Russian Messianism and Neo-conservative Visuality, Maria Engström
6. The Case of Hungary - a Parallel Development, Eszter Babarczy
Part II: The State of Affairs: Voices from the Russian Art Scene
7. Culture as the Enemy: Contemporary Russian Art under the Authoritarian Regime, Andrei Erofeev
8. Voices from within the Art Scene. Interviews with Russian Artists, Andrei Erofeev and Irina Kochergina
Part III: Artistic Counter-Strategies
9. Dissensus and "Shimmering": Tergiversation as Politics, Daniil Leiderman
10. Humor as a Bulletproof Vest: Artists Embracing an Ironic Zeitgeist, Helena Goscilo
11. Demontage of Attractions, Stanislav Shuripa and Anna Titova
12. The Chto Delat School for Engaged Art and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Jonathan Platt
13. A Dilemma for the Contemporary Artist: "Revolutionary Pessimism" of Roman Osminkin, Mark Lipovetsky
14. Radical Art Actionism, Andrei Erofeev
15. Petr Pavlenskii and his Actions", Per-Arne Bodin
16. Document: Pavlenskii and Yasman: Dialogues about Art, Artist Petr Pavlenskii and Investigator Pavel Yasman
Part IV: Theatre: A Parallel Development
17. Theatre of a Period of Archaization, Pavel Rudnev
18. Non-conformist Theatre in Russia: Past and Present, Kristina Matvienko
