‘Dikorosia’ is stories of Russian contemporaneity told by a cacophony of voices.

 

There is no right or wrong Russia, good or bad Russia, one's own or someone else's Russia. Russia is diverse. It’s common to all its citizens. At the same time, voices that differ from the dominant ideology are suppressed by those who perceive them as an existential threat.

 

Open protest is impossible. However, we believe that there’s something in between open protest and open cooperation. We need to look for new ways of self-expression in a reality that is becoming more and more horrific with each day.

 

We want to split an artificial ‘unity’ of opinion – sterilized by the regime – so that our voices are not stolen by an imagined majority.

 

We seek to unite some dissenting voices in ‘Dikorosia’. This is our way of expressing ourselves when it's almost impossible to do so.

 

In Russian politics today, what seems criminal from the point of view of ordinary morality is actually legal. What is normal for us, for the regime sees as ‘wildness’. In this way, culture becomes a lever of power and it’s only those cultural practices that serve the interest of the elite that are permitted. Everything else must be eradicated as ‘uncultured’.

 

We use the prefix ‘diko’ (in Russian ‘wild’) as a form of release; allowing us to live and breathe.

 

We give a voice to those who put the value of life at the centre of their moral and ethical world, those who strive for interactions based on equality, those who build horizontal ties and seek a transparent society, and those who respect differences and see them as a strength. We do not want to support the oppression of the individual, or any ideas that provoke violence.

 

‘Dikorosia’ seeks to go beyond the terminology of progress and power in which there are leaders and laggards, the civilized and the wild, rights and wrongs. Horizontal association is an effective force against the dictates of officialdom that destroy self-will, otherness, and – ultimately – life.

 

‘Dikorosia’  takes the form of a printed newspaper and an online zine where reflections of ongoing processes are collected in both text and visual form.