From Toilet to Prominence.

March 04. 2020

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov on installation at Documenta, Germany

I will be taking you back to 1992, revisiting a Documenta in Germany where conceptual artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov first time displayed an installation, today considered as masterpiece titled, Toilet.

Tucked behind the exhibition venue, shabby concrete public lavatory labeled Man and Woman presented in Cyrillics.

"You entered inside ( Emilia Kabakov explains), and expect to find yourself in public space when you come to the toilet. A lot of visitors actually thought it was real. Well, it was a real toilet, but it was also much more than that. Having entered through the Man side, visitors saw a sofa, dining table with chairs and tapestry on the wall. On the Women's side, there was a bed, wardrobe and child's playpen. A family space comfortable and cozy despite featuring an open toilet cubical with brown substance smeared at the top".

In metaphor, Kabakov tried to portray living space where people can make a home and be comfortable despite their circumstances, braking a tabu about a life previously concealed to the Western public. The audience knew very little about the life in USSR, but in 1992 the only story coming out of Russia was one of the confusion, fear, and panic as Russians struggle to survive the collapse of Communism. A million workers unpaid, selling their belonging in order to substitute the wage as the majority of families fell into poverty.

Many western journalists visiting Documenta in 1992 assumed that the end of Communism was forcing Russians to live in actual toilets and Kabakov did nothing to dispel that myth. Emilia's response to western journalists was ironic but very infuriating to the Russian audience.

"We do not live in toilets" screamed the headlines in Russia.

In reality, the Toilet had nothing to do with the economic hardship of 1992. It was a story of a Soviet past inspired by a memory of Kabakov's mother.

Penniless single parent forced to move from room to room, eating very little. At one point she had found herself living in one room which had previously been used as a toilet. She had no documents to exist but yet she did exist and raised her child while keeping her romantic nature intact.

So how does one install a Toilet and become one of the most prominent, essentially last conceptual USSR artist?!

The second part of this essay will be focusing on the early years of Kabakov's cultural formation, production and essentially looking at living conditions at the USSR that formed his way of artistic expression.

To understand his work we must look at the history of a man who began creating in utmost secrecy. In books he’s work seems to be multifaceted elusive made up of installations drawings, paintings, sculptures, and texts. 

The Moscow in the 50s, since the Revolution of 1917s communism, had dictated its law in an atmosphere of shortage, fear, and repression. The art that found favor in the eyes of the political party was one of socialist realism avoiding a tone of sadness at any cost.

The subject matter was performances of industrial workers, farmers, milkmaids in state of joy, delivering the idea that life in the Soviet Union is so much better than elsewhere. The unofficial artist, painters, sculptors, poets writers, and filmmakers were closely monitored and controlled by the state, even chastised and exiled. 

It was within this climate that the young Kabakov grew up. He was born in Ukraine in 1933. To earn a living as unemployment was unacceptable during the Soviet regime, Ilya Kabakov becomes a children's book illustrator just as the majority of artists. As illustrators, the artists had the right to obtain artistic supplies and studio spaces.

Towards the 50s and 60s, Ilya started to paint completely independently, in 'private' if you will. To culturally produce under the umbrella of independence risking his own life, work was displayed in private rooms even cellars.

At first, paintings were small, often critiques of the Soviet Communist situations. 

The accommodation becomes the very symbol of imprisonment, in particular, the communal apartments. People lived in overcrowded spaces always conscious of being overheard and spied on in fear of one day being reported. Sometimes 30 or 40 people in 100-meter square sharing four to five rooms, in essence, 1 room per family. The conversation between family members was conducted in the noisy kitchen or under the running water tap in whispers to ensure privacy.

Ilya Kabakov: Listening (in the Room) is painted in a childish style with two characters crossing through space. Their shared brain is under a bowler hat and they are each listening to the table using a wooden stethoscope. The room is a prison but paradoxically it is also the place of all possibilities.

Ilya Kabakov was an extremely precise and sharp observer of the Russian and Soviet situation, in particular, developing this satirical almost ironic work in regards to his environment and with an awareness of the individuality in Russian society.  

Kabakov would often paint characters that were constantly escaping reality. They flew in dreamy state elsewhere in the very place that suffocated them, as the way to dream was the only way to be free. 

Today, through cultural curiosity and visual communication one can grasp the artistic excellence while considering the work of art in ways of historical relevance and strategic placement. What is historically evident here is that cultural repression in the Soviet Union was a deliberate act of fear due to the power of artistic communication to inspire and ultimately empower people to act.

Kabakov was not able to show his installation Toilet till 1989 when he traveled abroad and initially, he was the sensation appreciated only in the West. It took Russia 12 years to start appreciating their most influential conceptual artist. In 2004 the Toilet was the first time showed in Russia. He is now considered one of the most influential artist coming out of the Soviet Union worldwide.

www.loreartadvisory.com