Curatorial Strategies of the USSR at the Venice Biennale 1956-1990: Between Ideology and Art

The article highlights the key principles of organizing exhibitions in the USSR and their implementation in the projects of the national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. At the beginning of the period under study, the Soviet pavilion is organized according to the principle of all-Union exhibitions: the national and cultural diversity of the country and the continuity of generations are demonstrated in the group exhibitions. Various types of fine art are presented, glorifying the ideals of socialism. Subsequently, political changes in the country are reflected in the exhibition of the national pavilion. The promotion of Soviet realistic art occurs through cultural policy, with an increased focus on the tastes of the audience and adjustment to the format of the Biennale. Criticism becomes less harsh, and solo exhibitions of once banned avant-garde artists are held. There is an increasingly noticeable integration into the pan-European artistic context. This trend reached its culmination in 1990, when a Russian exhibition was devoted to pop-artist Robert Rauschenberg. The article also explores the question of who performed curatorial functions in the Soviet Union. The Venice Biennale is examined as an artistic, economic and political event, based on an analysis of its most striking projects and scandals. Based on archives, interviews and articles, a curatorial system is recreated. The need for a non-binary approach to the study of Soviet culture is noted, in which the official and the private or underground cannot be opposed, just as the artistic and ideological aspects of the exhibition cannot exist in isolation.