Russia is known and valued all over the world for its classical literature, ballet and Avant-garde art. Contemporary Russian art and culture are not so well known abroad. Nevertheless, they can tell a lot about Russian lifestyles and psychology. The course introduces students to the most prominent contemporary Russian art movements, underground art scenes.

Collapse of USSR and creation of the new country

1. What life was like in USSR in 1970-80s
• The Brezhnevian Stagnation and Perestroika. Rise of unofficial art.
• The Bulldozer Exhibition in Moscow 1974. We will mention several representatives of Sots-art (Komar Melamid, Leonid Sokov), Moscow conceptualism school (Ilya Kabakov), explore works of Eric Bulatov and other representatives of unofficial art, who depicted Soviet reality in different from Soviet realism manner. We will meet average perestroika people portrait in the works of Semeyon Faibisovich and Tatiana Nazarenko. Our goal is to feel how people lived by looking at art.
• Briefly about postmodern banter in the music of Pyotr Mamonov's "Zvuki Mu" and Sergey Bugaev "Africa".
• Legitimatization of rock music and the song “I Want Changes" by Victor Tsoy as a hymn of perestroika.
• Musician and artist Sergey Kurekhin and one of his most remarkable mystification 'Lenin is a mushroom".
• We will touch upon such movies as "ASSA", "Interdevochka".

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