The New Theatre of the New Artists Group and the Russian Avant-Garde

The multimedia practice of the Russian Avant-Garde, in which theatrical art is inseparable from literary, visual and musical art, found its continuation half a century later in the work of the New Artists group, founded by Timur Novikov in 1982 in Leningrad. This article is the first study of the so-called New Theatre of the New Artists, which is associated with the following happenings or performances: The Ballet of the Three Inseparables, Anna Karenina, The Idiot, and their predecessor, the literary-noise action The Medical Concert. The article discusses three elements of the avant-garde theatrical tradition that resonate with the New Theatre: Nikolai Evreinov’s comprehensive concept of the “theatre for oneself”, the musical-spatial theatrical experiments of Mikhail Matyushin and his followers, and the absurdist theatre of Daniil Kharms and OBERIU. The second and third, despite being so dissimilar to each other, share the borderline, where zaum (alogism) and absurdism converge. This very convergence creates a dynamic semantic tension that marks the ideas of both D. Kharms and T. Novikov: the tension between an uplifting absurdity, striving for the inexpressible, timeless and universal, and, conversely, a lowering, destructive absurdity. It is obvious that the distinction between the two types of absurdism is a fundamental problem of ontology not only of the Russian Avant-Garde. The New Theatre can be considered as a seismic activity that lasted for about three years at the borderline area of the avant-garde art that worked its way from Symbolism through Expressionism to Dadaism and Surrealism. On this borderline, creativity manifests itself as an impersonal or other-than-personal process that establishes a connection of a person with the rhythms of the world or, on the contrary, illustrates disintegration, deconstruction and the reassembly of society. The New Theatre that established in the Leningrad underground was not an imitation of the avant-garde practices but their rebirth, which proves that this form of creativity is organic for the culture of St. Petersburg

Absurdism · Absurdity · Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Avant garde · Idiot · Literature · Musical · Theatre director · Visual arts · Scientific Research and Philosophical Inquiry · Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation · Sociopolitical Dynamics in Russia

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