With relations between Russia and Western liberal democracies strained to the point of rupture, the rise of nationalistic fervor and anti-democratic forces on all sides, and notions of dissent and finding a viable way forward taking on greater urgency with each successive day, “Sredstvo Kool (Medium Cool): Contemporary Video Work from Russia” at Young Projects comes at a crucial moment. The exhibition features video work by nine different artists and collectives, showcasing a chorus of dissenting voices within Russian culture that are critical not only of the surge of Russian nationalism but also, appropriately, of Capitalism’s failures.

Two videos by Chto Delat, a collective of philosophers and poets, stand out for their direct challenge to the tyranny of authoritarianism through devices derived from Brechtian theater. The single channel HD video Palace Square 100 years after. A Film—Lecture: “4 Seasons of Zombie” (2017) is an amusing reflection on the October Revolution on its 100th anniversary and of a capitalist ideology that makes zombies out of people.

Collective member and philosophy professor Oxana Timofeeva directly addresses the camera in a roving lecture delivered at the Palace Square in front of the Winter Palace (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg). The lecture is infused with a sense of historical irony as she stops briefly to get a photo with actors dressed as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great who are posing for photos with tourists. There are moments of brilliance when Timofeeva discusses the link between the Christian “hope of the resurrection” and the appeal of zombies in popular culture. She is accompanied by the collective’s ensemble zombie performance. Left unanswered are critical questions: what next in the struggle for justice?

AES +F, The Last Riot (2005 – 2007) 3 channel video installation, courtesy Young Projects.

The other Chto Delat work, The Excluded. In a Moment of Danger (2014) is a much starker affair with a four channel flat screen presentation that primarily takes the form of actors addressing the camera to discuss sensitive issues in Russia that have led to personal and collective tragedy: anti-gay legislation, the shooting of protestors in Ukraine, etc. As the conversation continues, the video moves into a wider public space with implications for society at large.

Sasha Pirogova’s single channel video Motherland (2016) addresses heroic ideals embodied in the Mutter Heimat statue in Berlin’s Treptower Park, which commemorates Soviet soldiers who died in the Battle of Berlin. Pirogova futilely emulates the ossified posture of these ideals, his body betraying the struggle of holding the pose.

Other highlights include a massive 3 channel video installation, The Last Riot (2005–07) by AES +F. Part of their Liminal Space Trilogy, it resembles a post-apocalyptic video game with scenes of digitized, animated beautiful young models wielding implements of war, engaged in an Olympian struggle. It is full of art historical references and set to Wagner’s Die Valküre, but it’s an anodyne version of the apocalypse. Vika Begalska’s Army Boots Crave Tenderness (2015) is much more interesting—a recording of a performance by the Teresa troupe at the Luda Gallery in St. Petersburg, it’s a kind of sex farce of the “make love not war” variety, with rousing cheers to Aphrodite.