Authors

Daria Sorokina¹;  ¹ École normale supérieure, France

Discussion

The Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Aesthetics Prometheus is world known phenomenon; This experimental creative institution emerged in a technical (aviation) institute in Kazan in the 1960s. The founder of “Prometheus”, Bulat Galeev, was actively interested in global artistic and technological trends, without hesitation he was contacting likeminded people even abroad. Thus, members of the institute were experimenting with light, sound, and video art and were undoubtedly at the forefront. Besides that Prometheus revived back from oblivion, reinterpreted, and brought to a new level, some names, and ideas of the advanced Soviet 1920s.
Collapse of the USSR opened many opportunities, a new phase of international cooperation between Prometheus and cultural, creative organisations outside the country began. But at the advent of the 2000s Prometheus was drowning in complex bureaucratic twists in Russia, it began an administrative battle for the right to exist. There were fewer possibilities and rights for the institution than at the time when the country was in stagnation and behind the Iron Curtain. Due to its peculiarity and identity Prometheus stayed away from any state museum it lead to a a trap of bureaucratic indifference, gradually losing its premises, funding, and, consequently, its staff. Eventually, current state - wandering around, both as a team and as an archive and collection in makeshift depots, all despite its recognition and fame.