Contemporary Art as a Source of Formation of the Image of Russia Abroad

The necessity to correct the image of Russia abroad is an actual issue nowadays. The following article considers the contemporary art as an effective communicative instrument for solving this problem. In this case, the communication process is not limited by a single recipient, as it is in the system: the artist - the artwork - the viewer, but more widely spreads to a heterogeneous, multi-level, international audience. The author considers art exhibitions and events as sources of information about the country, elements of PR, and resources of the state’s “soft power”. The artistic communications are comprehended in a broad context, within the diversity of information processes and social interactions surrounding the art in society. It is not about an ideologically controlled art, but about the diversity of the artists’ creative representation forms making up the contemporary art of the 21st century, whose free functioning in a country denotes the country’s social democratic development, and which can also be a method of forming a favorable image in the international arena. Cultural analysis of the role of art in the shaping of the country’s image is one of the urgent tasks at the present stage of the current social and cultural modernization in Russia, because its goal, among others, is to create the conditions for development and support of the contemporary Russian art at the public level and at the state one.

Russian culture, contemporary art, artistic communication, national brand, conception of “soft power”, image of the state

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