Pushing the Political Imagination.

In thinking through two ideologically charged moments in history, Russian art collectives Inspection Medical Hermeneutics and Chto Delat undermine the ‘facts’ espoused under their respective regimes – the hollow truths of the Soviet Union and the lies of Putin's Russia. It will be argued that these radically different collectives dissolve the distinction between ideology and mythology as well as undermining the ‘empirical’ nature of history. Adopting Brechtian theatrical conventions, Chto Delat aim to bring out the absurdity of Russia's contemporary reality, creating art in response to the 2011–2012 protests which took place in Moscow and St Petersburg. From 1987 to 2001, Inspection Medical Hermeneutics have sought out relics of power, infusing them with alternative – if ambiguous – significance. This article also suggests that their refusal to form consistent or recognisable forms of political subjectivity resonates with the anarchic disobedience of the global Occupy movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]