Bulldozer Exhibition

The Bulldozer Exhibition (Russian: Бульдо́зерная вы́ставка) was an unofficial art exhibition on a vacant lot in the Belyayevo urban forest by Moscow and Leningrad avant-garde artists on September 15, 1974. The exhibition was forcefully broken-up by a large police force that included bulldozers and water cannons, hence the name.

Since the 1930s in the Soviet Union Socialist realism had been the one of the artstyles largely supported by the state. All other forms of art were forced underground and sometimes prosecuted. One of the attempts to break out of the underground to more public view was the Belyayevo exhibition.

It was organised by three underground artists, Oscar Rabin (artist), Youri Jarkikh (Jarki) and Alexander Gleser. Among the artists taking part in the exhibition were Evgeny Rukhin, Valentin Vorobjov, Vladimir Nemukhin, Lidiya Masterkova, Borukh Steinberg, Nadegda Elskaja, Alexander Rabin, Vasilij Sitnikov, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid. It was held on a vacant lot, officially part of an urban forest (лесопарк) in Belyayevo. Attendance consisted of approximately twenty artists and a group of spectators that included relatives, friends of the artists, friends of the friends and some Western journalists. The paintings were installed on makeshift stands made out of dump wood.

The organizer Oscar Rabin told in an interview in London in 2010: "The exhibition was prepared as a political act against the oppressive regime, rather than an artistic event. I knew that we'd be in trouble, that we could be arrested, beaten. There could be public trials. The last two days before the event were very scary, we were anxious about our fate. Knowing that virtually anything can happen to you is frightening." Rabin was arrested and punished with expulsion from Russia, but was allowed to leave with his family to Paris.

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Wikipedia