ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|24 pages

Introduction

part I|100 pages

The conservative zeitgeist and Russian cultural policy

chapter 2|21 pages

The ‘Russian World’

Genetically modified conservatism, or why ‘Russian culture’ matters 1

chapter 5|19 pages

Daughterland

Contemporary Russian messianism and neo-conservative visuality

chapter 6|22 pages

Cultural policy and conservatism in Hungary

A parallel development

part II|37 pages

The state of affairs

chapter 7|7 pages

Culture as the enemy

Contemporary Russian art under the authoritarian regime

chapter 8|28 pages

Voices from the art scene

Interviews with Russian artists

part III|129 pages

Artistic counterstrategies

chapter 9|17 pages

Dissensus and ‘shimmering’

Tergiversation as politics

chapter 10|27 pages

Humour as a bulletproof vest

Artists embracing an ironic zeitgeist

chapter 12|20 pages

Wartime intimacy

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and the Chto Delat school for engaged art

chapter 13|17 pages

A dilemma for the contemporary artist

The ‘revolutionary pessimism’ of Roman Osminkin

part IV|25 pages

Theatre