The Potential of Artful Protest in a 'Post-Ideological' Era: The Case of Modern Russia

• In Event: Cultures of Soviet Dissent: Art, Material Culture, Fashion

Abstract

In this paper I explore the liberatory potential of artful protests in a society that embraces an attitude of a cynical distance to ideological convictions. In particular, I compare serious and playful protests in modern Russia, which inherited much of its Soviet cynicism. Serious protests are represented by the massive protests against election fraud in 2011-2012, while playful performances include Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer and the annual Monstrations, or demonstrations under seemingly absurd and apolitical slogans. In addition, I discuss the recent wave of powerful anti-corruption resistance, which contains elements of both serious and playful protest action.
I view these instances of resistance in terms of Lacan’s idea of la bêtise, or stupidity, of the signifier. Most discourses, according to Lacan, aim at maximum coherence, and thus lack liberatory power. In order to succeed, I argue, protesters do not have to convince anyone of certain propositions, which is largely the task of serious resistance. Instead of interpellating the public into a specific fantasy, nourished in the Imaginary, protesters need to engage the Symbolic. This way they have a chance to generate a flow of unfinished discourses which authorities do not see as dangerous, the state-sponsored media cannot interpret in predictable ways, and the mainstream public does not reject. Unlike Monstrations, loose protest narratives, however, must be readable enough to produce an impact.

Author

• Hanna Baranchuk, Independent Scholar