Russian Artists in Exile: Contemplating Identity, Belonging, and Displacement

• In Event: New Perspectives on Russian Theater and Performing Arts III: Liberation and Displacement: Russian Actors, Directors, Musicians, Theatre and Film Critics in Exile II

Abstract

The New East Symposium, “Displaced Life-Worlds: From Émigré to ‘Relocant’?”, which took place at the University of Pittsburgh in May 2023, grappled with questions concerning the post-2022 displacement caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Defined as the “Fifth Wave,” the “Ukrainian emigration,” the “Putin emigration,” the “disenchanted emigration,” among others, this largest relocation since World War II is a new historical turn characterized by the creation of many diasporic communities that spread from Central Asian countries to Baltic States. In this paper, I will explore ways Russian artists in exile wrestle with newly emerged exilic narratives and seek to offer their perspectives on identity, nationalism, and displacement in the new diaspora. I will draw my examples from the recent works by Marina Davydova and Dmitry Krymov. Museum of Uncounted Voices, written and directed by Davydova, was commissioned by HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin, Germany) and performed both in Berlin and Vienna in 2023. Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” in Our Own Words was developed in 2022 by Krymov Lab NYC, an international collective of actors, designers, musicians, and puppeteers, in residence at LaMama ETC in New York City. Despite the divergent trajectories of these artists and the different artistic principles that guide their creative process, these works offer intersecting perspectives on what it means to be a Russian artist in exile in today’s political reality and raise questions about the dangerous consequences of silencing cultures and individual voices.

Author

• Julia Listengarten, U of Central Florida