Gosha Rubchinskiy: Conservative Queer and Biopolitics of Fashion

• In Event: Second-Hand Beliefs: Recycling Culture in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract

The paper explores the question of cultural recycling in contemporary Russian fashion, focusing on the case of Gosha Rubchinskiy. In the last few years, his nostalgic remixes of the Soviet-era military- and sportswear, the 90´s cargo-cult fashion, youth skateboarding culture and rave aesthetics have gained a global recognition. I will discuss the biopolitical dimension of Rubchinskiy’s fashion and art projects during the period of 2008-2017 (collections, runway shows, documentary films, photography etc). Rubchinskiy’s visual representation of new Russianness as queer Other and his conservative homoeroticism will be analyzed as a transgressive form of contemporary Russian patriotic masculinity.

Author

• Maria Engström, Uppsala U (Sweden)