Mikhail Tolmachev's Installation at Moscow Gulag Museum Uses Absence to Address Historical Gaps
In 2016, Mikhail Tolmachev unveiled an installation named 'Pact Of Silence' at the State Museum of Gulag History in Moscow, drawing inspiration from a photographic album associated with the Solovki labor camp. This album, intended solely for internal NKVD purposes, includes roughly 300 photographs. Tolmachev concentrated on twenty-two images, crafting reproductions of empty spaces to symbolize historical voids, alongside a multi-channel sound installation that featured re-voiced interviews. He spoke with a local historian and the album's seller, who asserted it originated from a family archive. Unlike the museum's presentation of the album in a glass case, Tolmachev's work explores themes of institutional memory and documentary history. Sven Spieker published the interview in February 2017.
Key facts
- Mikhail Tolmachev's installation 'Pact Of Silence' was presented at the State Museum of Gulag History in Moscow in 2016.
- The work centers on a photographic album from the Solovki labor camp, established in 1923 and operating until 1937.
- The album contains about 300 images showing economic uses of the camp and private photographs of NKVD officers.
- Tolmachev reproduced empty slots where twenty-two photographs had been torn from the album.
- A multi-channel sound installation included interviews with the album's seller and museum staff, voiced by young actors.
- The album was sold to the museum in 2014 from a private family archive, with unclear provenance.
- Tolmachev traveled to the Solovki islands and interviewed a local historian who has studied the Gulag since the 1980s.
- The artist previously created an installation at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow using archival inventory cards.
Entities
Artists
- Mikhail Tolmachev
- Sven Spieker
- Gabriel Wilson
- Kabakov
Institutions
- State Museum of Gulag History
- Futura Center for Contemporary Art
- Armed Forces Museum
- Casa dei Tre Oci
- V-A-C Foundation
- Palazzo Zattere
- Central Museum of the Armed Forces
- Izvestia School of Documentary Photography
- Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow
- Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- ARTMargins
- Russian Ministry of Defense
- Red Army
Locations
- Moscow
- Russia
- Leipzig
- Germany
- Prague
- Czech Republic
- Venice
- Italy
- Solovki
- White Sea
- Arkhangelskaya oblast'
- Berlin
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- United States