The Strategies of Escapism in the Homo Sovieticus Reality: Art in Cultural and Geographical Periphery of Soviet Latvia
The Strategies of Escapism in the Homo Sovieticus Reality: Art in Cultural and Geographical Periphery of Soviet Latvia

Summary/Abstract: This article is focused on the question of cultural practices and artistic strategies that were implemented by artists in Latvia in the late socialist period. In order to seek for more autonomy and alternative forms of creativity in the atheist and ideologically permeated state and social structures, artists in Latvia explored the opportunities to engage in art and cultural practices that differed from the dogmatic canon of Socialist Realism. In this way, they created a parallel reality where they could distance themselves from the absurd Homo Sovieticus world and remain immune against indoctrination and internalisation of Soviet values. However, it is also problematic to draw the boundaries between the official and the non-official art. The task of contemporary art historians is thus to revise history and contextualise deviations from Socialist Realism, which despite the control and censorship, did manage to co-exist in parallel with the official domain.

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