The Aesthetics of Dictatorship | HRF at 2022 SXSW

Dictatorships frequently use art and culture as propaganda to create cults of personality and maintain legitimacy. The totalitarian aesthetic is familiar to many of us from films and documentaries of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany: tanks driving down wide boulevards; paintings of toiling workers; military uniforms laden with medals; and films depicting past glories. But for billions of people who continue to live under authoritarian regimes, these images and experiences continue to be a part of everyday life.

Recorded at SXSW 2022, this panel discussion explores how dictators co-opt cultural institutions with visual propaganda, using dress, art, film, and architecture to instill fear, impose their vision of society, and reinforce their authoritarian regimes. Guests include Louisa Lim, award-winning author, journalist, and former correspondent at BBC’s Beijing Desk and NPR from Hong Kong; Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University; and Alexander Sikorski, Policy Officer at HRF.

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Chapters:
00:00:00 - The Aesthetics of Dictatorship
00:07:04 - The Unhappy Story of State Artists in China
00:14:01 - The Line Between Artists and Propagandists in China
00:20:46 - Masculinity and Dictatorships
00:27:55 - The Power of the Spectacle
00:35:06 - Chinese Cultural Revolution Transformation
00:42:14 - Forced Assimilation and Cultural Erasure
00:48:49 - The Disappearing Symbols and Words
00:56:10 - The Trauma of World War II in Russia
01:03:42 - Applause

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