Visualization of Choice: Electoral Freedom in Contemporary Russia
The Moscow Office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (“FNF”) organized the event “Visualization of Choice: Electoral Freedom in Contemporary Russia", which was a part of Freedom Week. The event had three different parts. First, the Moscow office put together a new exhibition of FDP election posters created since 1945. The Archive of German Liberalism of the International Academy for Leadership (IAF), Gummersbach, Germany, had provided the Moscow office with the original posters and reprints. Irina Vershinina held a guided tour for the guests and Galina Kozlova conducted a survey to determine how best to portray these historic campaign slogans and colours from a modern voter’s perspective. The guests also voted for the worst poster.
Second, Dmitry Moskvin, PhD in Political Science, the Head of the academic programme of the Ural branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, presented a project which the Friedrich Naumann Foundation supported - “Pre-election Campaigning as a Science and Art”, located in Perm. The project organizers had collected a large amount of political agitation items at home, such as the lids for the cans with the logo of the political party “United Russia” (“Yedinaya Rossiya”) as well as stands with the photographs of Russian presidential candidates. There was an available venue in Perm so the exhibition took place there. Ludmila Kuzmina, from the Association for the Rights of Voters "Voice-Volga", raised the same issue by stating: “I have so many materials at home. They are already history, it’s a pity to throw them away, and at the same time there is no room to store them. Could there be one more exhibition?”
Last but not least, the single day for voting took place in Russia in September. Therefore, FNF invited the following experts Vitaly Averin from the Movement for Protecting Voter Rights “Golos” and Sergey Vershinin, an independent observer, to share their observations.
The “Visualization of Choice” event was a success, at least within its narrow circle of partners. FNF Moscow looks forward to seeing you at the exhibition.
For photos from the event:
Please visit the website and the Facebook page of FNF Russia and Central Asia for more information.
The events were part of the international global initiative, »Freedom Week 2015«. In FNF ESEE there were more than 15 events in 8 cities in 6 offices of the Foundation, promoting FNF contributions to Freedom.