Tombstone of Russian Democracy

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During the exhibition “The Day of Knowledge”, September 1-15, 1991.

Gallery “Regina-Art” – Manege, art fair “ArtMyth-2”.
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Before our exhibition in “Regina”, there were exhibition of Andrey Monastirsky entitled “Neighborhoods of gallery Regina-Art”. He transferred to the exhibition a tombstone from the cemetery, which was next to the gallery. When we began to mount the exhibition, the question arose: should we carry out this stone? We decided to expropriate it and to embed it into our exposition. The events of August 1991 just happened and on agenda was the issue of changing the Soviet red flag for the Russian tricolor. And I came up to paint the stone in the colors of this flag, symbolically buried Russian democracy.

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When our exhibition was closing, the question of dismantling the exposition came up and we needed to dispose of the stone. Its weight was 300 kg. In a couple of days contemporary art fair “ArtMyth - 2” was going to open. And this was how an idea to make a performance was born. We took a car, moved the object and threw it in front of entrance to the Manege. There we held a protest, using the stone as a tribune. Further, it was left as a warning to future generations. Basically, this action was one of the first critical actions in 1990s

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