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Surrealism in a Land of Bolsheviks
Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka
2017
2017
The exhibition title, Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks, was inspired by Lev Kuleshov’s 1924 film The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks. This reference captured the irony, playfulness, and eccentricity of an "imported" phenomenon—surrealism—within the paradoxical reality of the Soviet Union.
The project questioned whether, in unofficial Soviet art, graphic design, and theater of the 1930s–1940s, there existed a visual and conceptual language resonant with European surrealism. It focused on what did not fit the canonical image of Soviet art of the 1920s and 1930s—those aesthetic ventures into spaces ignored or rejected by official Soviet discourse: into the mysterious, the frightening, the absurd, or the ambiguously humorous; into zones that shimmered between genres and sensibilities.
The curators explored both artistic practices and everyday life, self-representation and play, in ways closely aligned with Dada and Surrealist approaches. They were particularly interested in the underside of 1930s Leningrad, where absurdity, imagination, and irony continued to surface in creative forms.
The exhibition was conceived to mark the centenary of OBERIU (The Union of Real Art)—a group of writers, poets, and philosophers active in Leningrad from 1927 to the early 1930s, including Daniil Kharms, Alexander Vvedensky, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Konstantin Vaginov, Yuri Vladimirov, and Igor Bakhterev. OBERIU declared a rejection of traditional forms of art, advocated for a renewal of artistic methods, and embraced grotesque, illogical structures, and the poetics of the absurd.
The very name OBERIU played with the notion of "real art", much like surrealism defined itself in opposition to Dada through its connection to reality—sur-realism as an intensified, heightened form of reality. The OBERIU centenary in 2016 offered an ideal moment to begin exploring these overlapping themes.
In addition to works by Pavel Zaltsman, Alexander Labas, Eduard Krimmer, Alisa Poret, and Boris Smirnov, the exhibition also presented books, magazines, and films that existed outside the framework of socialist realism, placed in dialogue with the writings of Kharms, Vvedensky, and Vaginov.
The project questioned whether, in unofficial Soviet art, graphic design, and theater of the 1930s–1940s, there existed a visual and conceptual language resonant with European surrealism. It focused on what did not fit the canonical image of Soviet art of the 1920s and 1930s—those aesthetic ventures into spaces ignored or rejected by official Soviet discourse: into the mysterious, the frightening, the absurd, or the ambiguously humorous; into zones that shimmered between genres and sensibilities.
The curators explored both artistic practices and everyday life, self-representation and play, in ways closely aligned with Dada and Surrealist approaches. They were particularly interested in the underside of 1930s Leningrad, where absurdity, imagination, and irony continued to surface in creative forms.
The exhibition was conceived to mark the centenary of OBERIU (The Union of Real Art)—a group of writers, poets, and philosophers active in Leningrad from 1927 to the early 1930s, including Daniil Kharms, Alexander Vvedensky, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Konstantin Vaginov, Yuri Vladimirov, and Igor Bakhterev. OBERIU declared a rejection of traditional forms of art, advocated for a renewal of artistic methods, and embraced grotesque, illogical structures, and the poetics of the absurd.
The very name OBERIU played with the notion of "real art", much like surrealism defined itself in opposition to Dada through its connection to reality—sur-realism as an intensified, heightened form of reality. The OBERIU centenary in 2016 offered an ideal moment to begin exploring these overlapping themes.
In addition to works by Pavel Zaltsman, Alexander Labas, Eduard Krimmer, Alisa Poret, and Boris Smirnov, the exhibition also presented books, magazines, and films that existed outside the framework of socialist realism, placed in dialogue with the writings of Kharms, Vvedensky, and Vaginov.
Curators
Aleksandra Selivanova
Nadezhda Plungyan
Exhibition Architecture
Aleksandra Selivanova
Graphic Design
Irina Goryacheva
Coordination
Evgenia Khaet
Aleksandra Selivanova
Nadezhda Plungyan
Exhibition Architecture
Aleksandra Selivanova
Graphic Design
Irina Goryacheva
Coordination
Evgenia Khaet
Was there Surrealism in the USSR in the 1920s-1940s? Was it derivative or an entirely independent phenomenon? How can its fragments be identified and interpreted?
This book is a scholarly and artistic reflection on these questions. It is based on the exhibition Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (organized by the Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka), timed to the 90th anniversary of the OBERIU group, often compared to the surrealists by researchers. As in the exhibition, painting, poetry, and prose intertwine throughout the book, evoking surrealist tendencies and impulses in the literary and artistic milieus of Moscow and Leningrad.
The catalog section, with detailed commentary on selected works, is accompanied by essays from Irina Karasik, Aleksandra Selivanova, Maria Silina, and Nadezhda Plungyan. These essays explore Surrealism in 1920s-40s architecture and painting, the often-blurred line between Surrealism and Socialist Realism, mysticism, philosophy, museum-building, and surrealist threads in the legacy of Russian Symbolism. Many of the featured artworks are published here for the first time.
Like other volumes in the LISI_CA (Avant-garde Center Research Laboratory for Soviet Art) series, the book offers a new, interdisciplinary approach to the history of Soviet art in the first half of the 20th century and is intended for both scholars and general readers.
This book is a scholarly and artistic reflection on these questions. It is based on the exhibition Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (organized by the Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka), timed to the 90th anniversary of the OBERIU group, often compared to the surrealists by researchers. As in the exhibition, painting, poetry, and prose intertwine throughout the book, evoking surrealist tendencies and impulses in the literary and artistic milieus of Moscow and Leningrad.
The catalog section, with detailed commentary on selected works, is accompanied by essays from Irina Karasik, Aleksandra Selivanova, Maria Silina, and Nadezhda Plungyan. These essays explore Surrealism in 1920s-40s architecture and painting, the often-blurred line between Surrealism and Socialist Realism, mysticism, philosophy, museum-building, and surrealist threads in the legacy of Russian Symbolism. Many of the featured artworks are published here for the first time.
Like other volumes in the LISI_CA (Avant-garde Center Research Laboratory for Soviet Art) series, the book offers a new, interdisciplinary approach to the history of Soviet art in the first half of the 20th century and is intended for both scholars and general readers.
About the LISI_CA series ↓
Moscow: Garage
400 pp
2025
400 pp
2025
Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks
Aleksandra Selivanova, Nadezhda Plungian
