The Labazinsky House of culture was founded in 1965. Linked with the Orenburg Region’s Lenin Kolkhoz, the House of culture was created as one of the biggest institutions of its kind. The number of seats in its concert hall amounts to 600. Besides hobby groups and the Russian folk choir, since 1980s the House of culture has been hosting disco parties.
In the 1980s, the youth danced to the sounds of an accordion. In the 1990s, the latter was replaced by a record player of the famous Romantik brand. The discos, which featured not just Russian, but also Western pop music, seemed to be the only source of entertainment for the village young people, who had no computers or mobile phones.
In 2018, 126 disco parties were held at the House of culture. However, nowadays the parties are much less crowded than they used to be in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s.
Every year, when I visit this countryside rave, I have a feeling as if I have travelled with a time machine. It feels like in a moment my mom will walk out from behind the corner. She will look the way she did in her student years, and the guy together with her will be my dad, also young and reckless. We will go together and start dancing to the tunes of Ace of Base, Ice MC, and Ivanushki.
When I was taking pictures this year, in my mind I was asking myself whether 20 years ago everything looked the same or it was much different. Anyway, for someone born in 1999 it is a fabulous experience to submerge in the atmosphere of the 1990s and move to the rhythms and beats popular back then.
My project embraces a period of 22 years. Preparing it, I used archive materials of my relatives and of the House of culture, as well as my own photos.
