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"Russia is not a nice garden" 2007
Analog b&w photography, overpainted
60 x 40 cm


Russia is not a nice garden
In a fictitious experiment in her photography, Koneva creates analytical, if also ironic pictorial contexts. The effect arises from citations from familiar sign systems, which are juxtaposed within a work of art so that each citation feels uncomfortable in the presence of the others. This triggers the viewer’s laughter – which often gets stuck in the throat.
With laughter, we distance ourselves from the dwarf who caricaturizes us. The dwarf is neither a decrepit neighbor nor a devilish enemy. In general, he is the epitome of philistinism, a sign of bad taste and an example of kitsch. Old people, the homeless, the ill, and the poor – social hardship, expressed in the form of dwarves, shows that the dwarf will not survive being separated from the alpine meadow, the small garden plot, and the front yards of Russia.