Members of the Russian performance-art group {rodina} (motherland) displayed signs with downbeat phrases in a St. Petersburg suburb. They were marking November, "the most joyless and depressing month" of autumn, but they also said the "depressive" performance reflected the "mood of the people" in Russia. https://vk.com/rodina_group?w=wall-65922260_683
Photographs by Vadim Lurie.
Russia's 'Alas Parade'
"Born, Put Up With It, Died." The {rodina} performance-art group has existed since 2013.
"Our Future Is Alcoholism." The group says it focuses on "performative social art and field and experimental research into patriotism, languages, and power institutions."
"Let's Put Up With It." The event's organizers say the "Alas-Parade" reflects the current apathy of Russian people.
"Everyone is dead, but some are deader." One member of the {rodina} performance-art group told the publication Sol (Salt) that the group tries to draw parallels with Soviet-era May Day holiday slogans, such as "Peace, Labor, May!"
"Spit." In Russian the word is commonly used in an idiomatic phrase meaning "I Don't Give a Damn."
"Our future." The artists held their signs in cemeteries, at railway stations, in parks filled with fallen leaves, and next to trash bins.
"Death Is the only hope; ALAS; War, unemployment, November; Let's put up with it; Pain, emptiness, patriotism, nothing." For the group, this performance is a way to take the language used by the Russian authorities out of its usual context and into the real world.
"Everything Will Be Bad And It Will Never End." {Rodina} frequently holds performances devoted to current issues on a regular basis.
"Alas." The group tries to take a creative approach to issues in Russia such as of law enforcement, education, and relations between individuals and organizations.
"No."