Russian train graffiti: a history of performance

ABSTRACT This article highlights the “performative” aspect of graffiti on Russian trains during the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Performative” here refers to Judith Butler’s understanding of performance as comprised of repeated acts without an essential "core." Graffiti on trains proliferated in Russia at the turn of the millennium through Russian writers’ repetition of imagery from books, magazines, and videos from the United States. This recurrent mimicry is shared with the history of public art in Russia, which was also characterized by collective and programmatic transnational performance. Drawing on archival material including books, magazines, films, photographs, and interviews with former writers, the article charts the history of art on trains in Russia over the past century. I argue that performativity links graffiti, street art, and public art in Russia in a manner that renders these categories mutually informing and inextricable.