Lumpens

The unequal access of local communities to cultural goods constantly reproduces such an understanding of the cultural space in which culture is exclusively concentrated in and comes from the capital. The perception of the province as cultural periphery modernized by the centre, reflects the real socio-psychological stereotypes in the public mind. In this regard, cultural gentrification is often accompanied by protests from the locals. The content of projects and the nature of their implementation become objects of derision. “The capital’s snobbery, desire to shock”, the use of financial and symbolic capital are reproached. A cautious attitude to art experiments in the Russian province is connected with the communities’ fear of the destructive consequences of cultural interventions in their system of classic, time-tested values ​​and aesthetic tastes.

Norilsk’s glocalism and mainland Kulturträger approach clashed on an impromptu runway at one of the production galleries of the Copper Plant during the preparation of a fashion show for young Russian designers. Local models, recruited by the Lumpen Agency, which specializes in working with non-standard types, were sabotaged and even physically abused by the steel workers. Part of the proactive townspeople also did not share the organizers’ enthusiasm for the event: it turned out that the intervention of outsiders was rather seen as “a raid on an indigenous town by conquistadors offering coloured beads.”