Angry Russian proudly presents: A festival of art, culture and vodka!

As my dear readers have probably observed, the Angry Russian hasn’t been around for quite a while. The cold, blank stare of The First Pint’s editor broke his heart, but now he has a rock-solid excuse: he’s been too busy organising the first official Angry Russian Festival that’s going to take place next week at a wonderful place called The Foundry (if anybody’s interested why exactly that place, please refer to this story yours truly wrote – English translation here). And you, dear readers, are cordially invited.

Photo Credit: Nikolay Kopeikin

The whole idea is that Russian culture doesn’t necessarily have to be all about excruciatingly long, depressing novels. We Russians love to have good fun, even if it culminates in a throbbing headache the next morning. We also don’t march in uniforms or stand in lines for bread and toilet paper, the climate is not that different from Canada and, while we’re at it, we’ve never actually had Communism, which is a purely theoretical concept. But we do laugh at “In Soviet Russia…” jokes because self-deprecating humour is a very important part of Russian culture.

And since it’s impossible to rule out every single national stereotype, yes, we will be serving vodka on our opening night (Thursday, April 22), the way it is drunk in Russia (which is the only right way), with lots of classic savoury snacks like brined herring with spring onions, smoked lard and pelmeni.

Culture-wise, we have a great selection of young artists from Moscow, St. Petersburg and London. In rock festival terms, the headliner is obviously Nikolay Kopeikin from St. Pete. He’s responsible for the visual side of NOM, one of the most popular “joke rock” acts in Russia with a genuine cult underground status. Kopeikin paints in a crude style that is (probably) influenced by anything you can think of, from French Fauvists to editorial cartoons through German expressionism, masterfully mocking everything from everyday Russian life to international affairs. Don’t be fooled by his almost naïve approach: he’s got quite an ideological punch, maintaining an idea that the content is more important than the form.

The Angry Russian in the flesh. Look out for icicle jokes... Photo Credit: Maja Kucova

Kibersekta (Cybersect) is a three-strong artist collective from Moscow who have achieved a somewhat cult status with their Agitprop-style posters with sharp social and political commentary.  Photographer Maja Kucova captures everyday life in Moscow suburbs, finding unexpected beauty even in the most unmpromising places, while Larisa Golubeva gives the same treatment with oil paint to the other Russian capital, her native St. Petersburg. Nikolay Vasilyev and Stas Kazimoff both explore the possibilities of pop art to some extent, with Vasilyev sticking (pun intended) to Scotch tape to create portraits of random people.

We’ll also be screening some of our favorite stuff, starting with Kin Dza Dza, a late Soviet cult classic which had so much influence on at least two generations of Russians that you can wake up anybody in the middle of the night and they’ll be quoting whole scenes from the film. It’s part steampunk sci-fi, part bizarre comedy with so much unclassifiable but amazing stuff inbetween that it’s a huge shame it never came out in the West. But fret not—we are here to correct that cultural mistake. We’ll also show some dark comedy from NOM Film (for most of which Nikolay Kopeikin is responsible), London resident Janna Kuzmova’s short film and comedy sketches, and VBS.TV’s great recent documentary on Russian “Parallel Cinema”.

There you have it, your official invitation. Now come and have fun, folks!

Opening Thursday 22 April, 6 pm at The Foundry, 86 Great Eastern St, London EC2A 3JL

More from our Angry Russian:
Angry Russian on Compatriots
Angry Russian on Maslenitsa
Angry Russian on the ‘Big Freeze’
Angry Russian on vodka literacy
Rants by an Angry Russian