The section of the installation entitled ‘Funeral’ contains a mounted photograph of the boy in a simple wooden coffin, with four adult figures clothed in black and standing behind. The scene is rural. The artists have drawn a frame around this photograph. Beneath is a wooden frame, suspended from which are five pieces of fabric that containing some kind of material. Four are white, and one is black, and they are tied up with string. There are labels above these makeshift containers, though they are illegible in the available documentation.
Il’ia Artamonov explained:
A photograph lay face down underneath the windowsill. We turned it over, and realized it was a photograph of a young boy who was lying in his grave. At that moment, the energy stopped, because we suddenly saw how life had brought tragedy. Very quietly, we put the photograph back and hurried to the cars. We took everything to the studio and the corridor was drowning in all this stuff. In the evening we told the artistic director and tutors and how we found the family album and photograph … The next day Mark Aleksandrovich (Konik) came up to us and said … that it may be unethical, but we should go back and get the photograph. We went over and took the photograph, and were quietly pleased by the theme of this seminar – to narrate the lives of the people who lived in this house.
from: Soviet Critical Design: Senezh Studio and the Communist Surround by Tom Cubbin
