The Russian artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid (aka ‘Komar and Melamid’) began their art careers generating state-sanctioned Socialist Realism – that is to say, the kind of reverent, red-tinted imagery that comes to mind when you picture Soviet propaganda posters. Soon, however, they found themselves enmeshed in a subversive underground art movement, creating ironic, subversive and often tragicomic imagery that resulted in one of their exhibitions being literally bulldozed by their totalitarian government. Created on the occasion of a retrospective of their work at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Jersey in 2023, this short film tells the story of how the duo rose to prominence in the early 1970s before ultimately falling out over artistic and philosophical differences. In doing so, the US-based director Sam Vladimirsky explores how two rather self-serious institutions – the Soviet government and the US art world – responded to their provocations, and the irrepressible nature of creativity and expression.
Director: Sam Vladimirsky
Websites: State of the Arts, Whimsy
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Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
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Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
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Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
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Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
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Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
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Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes