Deciduous Hall at the Calendar Collective Farm

Another recurring image in Pepperstein’s work is that of Lenin, the roots of which go back to his first kindergarten visit to the Lenin Mausoleum. To this day Pepperstein considers the Mausoleum one of the most perfect and complete projects of the Russian avant-garde, archaic yet futuristic. When he was younger, the visit to the Mausoleum created in him an irrational love for Lenin, who became a fairy-tale character from a parallel world, a spirit one could communicate with or appeal to. Mystical communications with Lenin became ritualized at a later age, as the leader started appearing in Pepperstein’s writings and artworks. Like a real superhuman being, Lenin lying next to a beautiful girl as if he were in the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, grants humanity the promise of his impending miraculous resurrection.

“It was not death but a magical dream that was exhibited there. You could not linger inside the mausoleum. The model of eternity presented there could only be experienced for a fleeting moment.” (Pavel Pepperstein, The Exhibitionist)

The sarcophagus—originally designed by Konstantin Melnikov—is reproduced in a room filled with foliage: here the two-dimensional pattern permeating the exhibition reaches its peak, becoming real and tactile and giving off a calming rustle.