Diary of an Unknown Person (1956–1965)

Kazan artist Ilgizar Khasanov has been a key figure in the art scene of his city for several decades. Khasanov works with the Soviet material legacy, revisiting it in a lyrical way. Collecting various rare and unusual everyday objects from the Soviet period and combining them into installations, he does not aim to reproduce the spirit of the era but wishes to reveal through objects the personal stories of their anonymous owners. In a way, these often very ordinary and unassuming objects are themselves animated and reveal their independent life in the gap between the aesthetics of the Soviet era and individual human destinies.

The installation Diary of an Unknown Person (1956–1965) is based on the diary of a Soviet citizen purchased at a flea market. The diary covers the years from 1956 to 1965, with entries written not daily but selectively. Most entries consist of monotonous descriptions of unremarkable events that happened during the day. Khasanov has complemented this striking document of the early Khrushchev Thaw period with authentic objects of the time: a stool, a worn jacket, a cigarette, an inkwell, and a still life featuring a modest lunch. These objects create an illusion of the anonymous protagonist being present in the room and reconstruct fragments of their everyday life, while the glass corridor space with the absurd signs for the entrance and exit refers, according to the artist, to images of a sarcophagus or a fairy‑tale coffin.