Disgraced Monuments

Duration: 49

Year Published: 1993

Creator: Mark Lewis

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Description: Examines the historical, cultural, and aesthetic implications of the recent dismantling of Soviet monumental art after August 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Uses interviews with Russian scholars, artists, architects, art critics and public commissioners, as well as historical film footage, to trace the development of Soviet public monuments as political tools under Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev. Discusses the significance of the destruction of the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow (1939) in order to build the Palace of the Soviets, which ended in failure. Links the current dismantling of Soviet art to similar events in the past and asks whether the current change symbolizes a new era or simply a continuation of the past. Examines how artists have been affected by these changes. English and Russian with English subtitles.