This week the Center for the Humanities at Tufts (CHAT) presents “Counter-Culture and Protest in Contemporary Russia.” The event features presentations by two artists making waves in Russian politics with their work.
The first of the two events -- a film screening of “Winter, Go Away!” and discussion with contributing documentarian, Anna Moiseenko -- was held last night in Tisch Library.According to CHAT posts, Moiseenko began work on “Winter, Go Away!” ("Zima, ukhodi!") in 2012, when Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta commissioned 10 graduates from Marina Razbezhkina’s School of Documentary Film and Documentary Theater to film the growing movement against Russian President Vladmir Putin’s government. The resulting documentary received critical acclaim, and was nominated for best documentary at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in the Czech Republic and at the Nika Awards, held annually in Russia.
As many know, unrest in Russia rose in the months before Putin’s third re-election as president, when many citizens accused the former KGB agent of, among other things, freedom of speech violations and electoral fraud. Taking to the street, Moiseenko, along with her nine fellow filmmakers, captured powerful emotion and documented the strong divide between “Putin lovers” and “Putin haters.” Their documentary includes footage of noted protests like the Pussy Riot performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which made international headlines when several members of the feminist punk band were arrested and charged with “hooliganism.”
The second event, scheduled to take place at 6:45 p.m. tonight in Distler Performance Hall, features music and poetry from Russian activist Kirill Medvedev. A member of the Russian socialist movement, Vpered, Medvedev is perhaps the most interesting and widely-published artist to ever formally reject the literary world for its corruption and greed. In fact, the title page of his first book -- translated for American audiences, “It’s No Good: Poems / Essays / Actions,” -- reads “copyright denied by Kirill Medvedev, 2012.” Medvedev is also a singer and guitarist for his protest-folk band Arkady Kots (named after the Russian revolutionary poet and translator).In 2012, the group was detained after trying to stage a concert in a Moscow courtroom where members of Pussy Riot -- a feminist punk band -- were assembled for a pretrial hearing, as reported by the New Yorker.
Entrance to Medvedev’s presentation is free and open to the public, as was the screening of “Winter, Go Away!” For more information on visiting artists and activists, students should visit the CHAT events page online.
CHAT presents Russian counter-culture artists, activists
