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By: Pancheva-Kirkova

The second interpration of the Ilya Kabakov - The Toilets: Obsene Homes classification is the Kabakov’s work as an attempt for a creation of a communist collective. As S. Boym claims, through his installations, signed as they were made by different people “he turns himself into a kind of ideal communist collective, made up of his own embarrassed alter-egos - the characters from whose points of view he tells his many stories and to whom he ascribes their authorship. Among them are untalented artists, amateur collectors, and the “little men” of nineteenth-century Russian literature, Gogolian characters with a Kafkaesque shadow.” I think that Kabakov’s work is not about the creation of a collective, through his many characters he questions the problem of art as a self-expression. Every of his ‘authors’ presents his/her own point of view through his/her personal memory and imagination rather than a common opinion. They do not create a collective but a complex narrative of viewpoints. The next intepretation presents the artworks of Ilya Kabakov in relation to the Soviet system as a myth. He chose to depict the Soviet Union as one utopian project rather than portraying it as a destroyed Socialism project. His art is an Disenchantment of the Socialist myths. He rationalises their mysticism through the personal narratives of anonymous authors, and allow us to become aware of the small details that creates the reality in a tangible way. There is no place of mysticism in the living space in the Soviet era. It consists of tangible experiences ... >>