Authors

Marco Biasioli¹;  ¹ University of Manchester, UK

Discussion

The present paper investigates how contemporary Russian musicians construct a relationship with the past. Taking as examples videos from 2015 to 2021, the paper analyses how musicians reconnect with the ‘pre-Putin’ era (particularly perestroika and the 1990s) and its various visual and sonic aesthetics. The paper argues that this relationship with the past is not nostalgic, but it is rather a re-enactment of a cultural heritage that functions as a commentary on present political conditions. This process of recycling and reactivation gives birth to a ‘present continuous’, in which past, present and future are merged.