Soviet Experimental Art: Duality as a Representation of the Principle of Binary Oppositions

The article deals with doubleness as a basis for identifying different factions of experimental Soviet art opposed to official Soviet culture. The concept of duality is proposed as a supplementary principle of binary oppositions, maintaining the binary structure of the organizational model of cultural experience. Binary oppositions as a model of doubleness appears as a ternary structure, where the intermediate element between extreme, polar members is a mediator that sets the context of their relationship. Thus, as a term developed in literary studies, doubleness is transferred to the sphere of social relations in the role of a model that forms the interaction of both experimental art groups with Soviet culture, acting as this mediator, and various denominations of this direction among themselves. In this regard, the work pays attention to the analysis of three groups representing unofficial Soviet art, namely the “Second Avant-Garde”, non-conformist art and the group of “New Artists”. Their representation is carried out through the comparison of each group with a certain type of doppelganger. Thus, the first couple that receives attention – “First Avant-Garde” and “Second Avant-Garde”, broadcasts the archetype of a carnival couple. The next pair of doubles “avant-garde” – “nonconformism” embodies antagonistic doubles. The last group that the author turns to analyze is the association representing the Leningrad underground – “New Artists”. In opposition to nonconformism, they represent a twin pair of doubles, also known as “Russian type”.