Britain is in the swing of a general election (8 June 2017) billed by some as a revolution, not only because of the contestants’ clashes over ideologically charged prescriptions to the country’s current ills but also due to a looming crisis with the European Union. In comes Tate with its timed intervention, albeit coincidental, with  the installation of Erik Bulatov’s monumental satirical steel sculpture Forward (Russian: вперед, vpered) to mark the centenary of the 1917 revolution which ended the monarchy and led to the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR). Bulatov, who rose from street / underground art to gain mainstream recognition, appears to have thought of his creation after visiting a disused French iron foundry in Maubourguet, southwest France, and what he saw as its utter lack of power despite its mammoth size. Bulatov delivers his bite and his art’s contemporary—indeed everlasting—resonance in the way his modern construction of giant (2900 x 18200 x 900 mm overall) Cyrillic letters making up ‘forward’ (вперед, vpered) four times, comes across in an almost venerable, worship-worthy circle reminiscent of Stonehenge, albeit checked or distracted by the textual message. Forward it ain’t, as it’s not going anywhere. A toppled-over letter р  (r) from the assembly of letters delivers the coup de gâce. By Bulatov’s own and curators’ accounts, the artist was struck by the enormous, semi-derelict 19th century space and its lost potency and relevance, its structure reduced to representing a contemporary society, a demise and degeneration that few of its original architects, designers, builders or visionaries would have foreseen. Bulatov’s work resonates with witnesses to the eventual collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the ensuing litter of abandoned industries across the vast expanse of its successor state, the present Russian Federation. In that sense the art also brings to mind Britain’s own recent experience with one half of its population deciding to leave Europe in a miasma of deceit and clever wordplay at the highest political level, only to be reminded soon after of the many disillusions and disappointments in its wake in an ever-lengthening procession, its progress and final destination unknown. While Bulatov’s work, its bold forms and bright colours create a feeling of energy and movement, a Tate curatorial comment reminds us, their placement in a closed loop implies that progress may never really be possible....