GZPRM GOPNIK, the new solo show by Kostis Stafylakis, is inspired by the accelerating memefication of Slavic and, particularly, Russian identity. In the recent years, an increasing number of social media accounts and YouTube channels stream documents and videos of quotidian life in Russia molding the impression of an ethnic attitude that is raw, awkward, zany, clumsy, funny, and surreal. In pages and accounts such as Squatting Slavs in Tracksuits, Life of Boris, Scenic Depictions of Slavic Life, Look at this Russian et.al., the image of the Eastern European and particularly Russian gopnik, wearing an adidas tracksuit, flat-cap, dancing to early-style techno music, smoking and drinking at urban locations of the Russian inland, is iconic of this global excitement with the “exceptional roughness” of Slavic and Russian lifestyle. These depictions include Russians cuddling with bears, posing with giant fish in their living rooms, carrying guns in public transportation etc.

 

Russian users partake in this process of (self-)exoticization feeding these pages with original or purposely created material, revealing the ambiguous union of selfhood and othering in the interoperable environment of Web 2.5. In fact, most users feed these pages to satirize the western stereotype of post-soviet Russia. By further developing his practice of “walking with the enemy”, Kostis Stafylakis adopts the aesthetics of these images and reworks them to produce a post-media hallucination that renders them less funny, less laughable, and more upsetting, intimate, and occasionally ecstatic. GZPRM GOPNIK is the second chapter in an artistic trilogy that started with Chloroquine Juggalo, previously featured at KEIV ATHENS.