Deviantnoe povedenie: The Graffiti Collective Zachem’s Social and Artistic Practices

Abstract

This article analyzes the experimental documentary film Deviantnoe povedenie (Deviance, 2011) by and about Zachem (Why, What for), and argues that the Russian graffiti collective’s social and artistic practices comprise strategies for questioning assumptions about status quo, normativity, strict categories, and clear boundaries. The first part looks at graffiti as a social behavior, which was considered “deviant” in the Soviet-era and which still bears that legacy in contemporary Russia. The second part examines graffiti and film as intermedial art practices that problematize the boundaries of artistic forms, and it investigates the implications of remediating graffiti. The article suggests that the graffiti collective’s practice of asking zachem, why, in the public sphere is a methodology that it extends to its own creative practices.