Paper short abstract:

Along with the discussion of symbolic representations of regional cultures and identities, considerable interest has been expressed in certain trends in 'ethno-futurist' movement across the the Finno-Ugrian regions of Russia as forms of expressing regional self-consciousness

Paper long abstract:

The aesthetics of ethno-futurism is orientated towards a contemporary comprehension of traditional ethnic symbolism and, at the same time, in its artistic constructivism on the destruction and diffusion of the language of symbols typical for any given ethnic culture. This duality provides the very sources of ethno-futurism, which arise out of a conflicting intersection of ethnic, traditionalistic, (anti-)globalising and ideological discourses of the Finno-Ugrian space. Inherent in the contemporary visual arts, literatures, theatres and cinemas in the post-Soviet Finno-Ugrian republics are neo-mythological tendencies that can be characterised as manifestations of 'peripherality' in culture.

The point of view of artistic circles is that ethno-futurism is an underground movement, which opposes everything 'official' in the arts. At the same time, ethno-futurist exhibitions and festivals are financed by the governments of the various Finno-Ugrian republics as events that reflect the development of ethno-national cultures. In fact, ethno-futurism has become an institutionalised component of the regional authorities' ideological propaganda. However, ethno-futurist artists stress their political indifference to and non-participation in the various national movements of the Finno-Ugrian republics.

Objectively, ethno-futurism is not only a reflection of new creative expressions in literature, the visual arts and cinema, but also of the paradoxes of contemporary ethno-politic processes that are happening in the European Russian North, just as they are occurring in the Baltic countries, Scandinavia and Finland

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