The joint lecture by Zhon-Zhon Sandyr and Kuchyran Yuri will cover performances, happenings, video art, chants, rituals, ceremonies, symposia, and other manifestations of the ethnofuturist movement in Udmurtia.
Ethnofuturism emerged in the poetic and artistic circles of Estonia in the late 1980s. In 1994, participants of the ethnofuturist conference in Tartu—including representatives of many Finno-Ugric peoples, such as the Udmurts, the Komi, the Mari, the Karelians, the Erzyas, and the Sami among others (about 100 peoples in total)—released the manifesto Ethnofuturism: A Way of Thinking and an Alternative for the Future, according to which at the heart of the ethnofuturist movement was a combination of «the ancient Finno-Ugric way of thinking and the new opportunities created by the information society.»
Since the mid-1990s, ethnofuturism has spread not only in post-socialist countries but also in the cultures of several republics of modern Russia, including Mari El, Komi, and Udmurtia. One of the leaders of the ethnofuturist movement in Udmurtia is Kuchyran Yuri. His practice as an artist and organizer, as well as the projects of the group Emnoyumno, which he founded together with the artist Zhon-Zhon Sandyr in 2010, combine contemporary art with the complex imagery of Udmurt culture and the personal mythologies of the artists.
Since 1998, Kuchyran Yuri has initiated 11 ethnofuturist festivals in Udmurtia. In 2007, they turned into an annual summer symposium allowing for a deep immersion into the life of remote villages of Udmurtia. Since 2013, winter symposia, focused on performance and video art, have been added to the summer ones. During the symposia, invited artists create works that respond to a common theme, as well as the history and the current situation in the place where the event is held. These symposia usually result in works in the genre of ethno video art.