Summary
Russian/Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s is broadly recognized to have been an integral part of the European avant-garde and Russia’s first truly original contribution to world culture. In contrast, Soviet art and design of the post-war period is often dismissed by general public as propaganda, hack-work and shameful plagiarism that resulted in a uniform and shabby world of commodities. Thanks to a growing body of scholarship on Soviet design, as well as to a recent work of enthusiastic Russian curators who organized Moscow design museum, a positive narrative of Soviet design have begun to emerge. In particular, the genealogical connection between Russian avant-garde and late Soviet design is generally noticed by scholars. However, the concrete ways of translating the avant-garde’s ideas into late socialist design and commodity production have received relatively small attention. This research project takes avant-garde’s legacy as a key link between post-war Soviet and Western, in particular Scandinavian, design. It addresses the question of temporal and cross-European design connections by focusing on a “socialist object.” The latter is considered both as a reference to the avant-garde precedent and a concept useful for reaching beyond the standard narrative of Soviet design as a poor imitation of Western models. By relying on archival and published sources I will analyze the transition of objects through different settings – designers’ desks and workshops, artistic and technical councils, factory floors, department stores and people’s homes. My research will present a complex history of Soviet design as a second Russian avant-garde and as a part of post-war European development of visual and material culture. Thus it will provide the historical background for the current Russian designers' search for interconnection with European design schools and trends.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/700913 |
| Start date: | 01-08-2016 |
| End date: | 31-07-2018 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 200 194,80 Euro - 200 194,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
Russian/Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s is broadly recognized to have been an integral part of the European avant-garde and Russia’s first truly original contribution to world culture. In contrast, Soviet art and design of the post-war period is often dismissed by general public as propaganda, hack-work and shameful plagiarism that resulted in a uniform and shabby world of commodities. Thanks to a growing body of scholarship on Soviet design, as well as to a recent work of enthusiastic Russian curators who organized Moscow design museum, a positive narrative of Soviet design have begun to emerge. In particular, the genealogical connection between Russian avant-garde and late Soviet design is generally noticed by scholars. However, the concrete ways of translating the avant-garde’s ideas into late socialist design and commodity production have received relatively small attention. This research project takes avant-garde’s legacy as a key link between post-war Soviet and Western, in particular Scandinavian, design. It addresses the question of temporal and cross-European design connections by focusing on a “socialist object.” The latter is considered both as a reference to the avant-garde precedent and a concept useful for reaching beyond the standard narrative of Soviet design as a poor imitation of Western models. By relying on archival and published sources I will analyze the transition of objects through different settings – designers’ desks and workshops, artistic and technical councils, factory floors, department stores and people’s homes. My research will present a complex history of Soviet design as a second Russian avant-garde and as a part of post-war European development of visual and material culture. Thus it will provide the historical background for the current Russian designers' search for interconnection with European design schools and trends.Status
CLOSEDCall topic
MSCA-IF-2015-EFUpdate Date
28-04-2024
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