In spring 2024, I participated in the group exhibition “Perpetuum Mobile - Estonian Art in
Berlin” at the Estonian Embassy in Berlin. For this exhibition, I created two works that were
made during my stay in Berlin in 2023-2024.
Both works (was diptychs in nature), were illustrated a complex and sad story about a failed
Soviet cosmonaut called Nelyubov who was supposed to fly into space after Gagarin, but
this did not happen. Having gotten drunk one time in a bar and started a fight there,
Nelyubov was detained by the police. For undermining the image of the first Soviet
cosmonauts, he was expelled from the space program. Soon after, Nelyubov became an
alcoholic and committed suicide by throwing himself under a train. For his participation in
World War II, he received several star-shaped awards. I painted these stars on one of my
paintings as an allegorical symbol of the cosmic stars that Nelyubov never saw from space.
A few days before the opening of the exhibition I was informed that one of the two works had
disappeared. An investigation was conducted, but the painting still remains missing and is
probably somewhere in Berlin. Upset, I decided to exhibit the second, remaining painting
with the stars. On the opening day of the exhibition, a man approached me who persistently
wanted to know why I had exhibited a painting with Soviet symbols in the embassy. After
explaining the concept in detail and explaining that I was in no way trying to glorify the USSR
with this painting, it seemed to me that the dialogue had ended on a good note.
The next morning I received a phone call and was told that for political reasons the work had
been removed from the exhibition.
Now one of the paintings is lost, another one was “cancelled”. It is interesting to me how the topic that I touched on in my work was transferred to my real life and also to some extent became a
tragedy. I think none of the artists likes to lose their works or receive news that they have
been removed from an exhibition. Personally, I drew a parallel with the story on which I
created these paintings, where Nelyubov was also excluded from the space program and he
seemed to be “lost”.
Here I touch upon an important aspect of censorship and political correctness, which is now
becoming increasingly acute in the art of Eastern Europe. I agree with the decision of the
embassy and the fact that the work with Soviet symbols was ultimately removed from the
exhibition for well-reasoned reasons, but the fact remains a fact and I believe that my story
can in some way help other artists who have found themselves in a similar story in light of
the events of the last few years in the world.
The goal of this exhibition is not so much to resist this process as to show it abstractly and
as if from the outside, being a kind of silent mirror of time that simply reflects what is
happening now, including in the world of art.