A+E is a tiny part of T.R. Project dealing with the forbidden political jokes from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. T.R. is the abbreviation for tiny revolutions and comes from the expression used by Orwell in an essay from 1945, which says that ‘every joke is a tiny revolution’. The term is often linked to the jokes created in the Soviet Union. Criticism of any kind against the system and implicitly about the political leaders was forbidden therefore there appeared a huge amount of underground jokes told around the kitchen table, laughing at all the aspects of daily life (politics, ideology, propaganda, economy, science, international relationships, lack of food, electricity, running water etc.).

Since critical thinking was banned in the public space the jokes’ function was to show the truth behind the propaganda and to dismantle the lies promoted by the party doctrine. It was a social protest that brought down to a human level the untouchable leaders. Jokes tellers were almost the only active opposition to the one-party rule. Political jokes were very spread around the Soviet bloc but telling them was a risky business. It is said that Communism was laughed out of existence. No one knows who invented these jokes, they were like oral tradition, a sort of neo folklore. The works contains bits of contemporary cultural, popular and political characters as well. Historical facts are updated to fit into our present day.

Daniel Nagy (b. 1981) is a Romanian visual artist working and living in Oulu, Finland and member of Oulu Artists Association. He graduated from the University of Arts and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2006.