Performance on the Margins: Collaborative Art Practices in the Late-Soviet Underground

The so-called social turn toward collaborative art practices in the West has a curious but rarely discussed parallel in unofficial art in the late Soviet Union where collaborative performance art served as a significant catalyst for artistic innovation, particularly during the watershed period between 1975 and 1985. Pathbreaking performances by the Nest, SZ, and others, as well as the important collaborative art movement AptArt between 1982 and 1984, suggest interesting parallels to developments in the West and underappreciated precedents for Moscow Actionism in the 1990s and protest and street art in the 21st century. This article expands the picture we have of collaborative performance in the late-Soviet underground and highlights its role as precursor to participatory practices today.