Pleasant Delusion. Diary of Cadet
Self published artists’ book
Soft cover
Design paper
Size: 140×200 mm
64 pages
Multiple inserts
Language: Russian
Edition of 1 unic copy
Year: 2024
“Diary of Сadet” is part of the installation ‘Pleasant Delusion’, first presented at the collective exhibition
‘Lived/Painted’ in the Library of Book Graphics (St. Petersburg) in December 2024.
“Sometimes you think you understand everything. A pleasant delusion.”
These words end the diary of a cadet of a Moscow military school from 1990-1992, which was handed over to me under conditio of complete anonymity. For this reason, I have no right to name its author, nor where he came from, nor in which military school he studied. Along with the diary I also received part of our hero’s archive: some photos, two notebooks, fragments of documents. There I was forced to “hide” everything that could help the reader identify the author or people from his environment.
At first glance, this warning may seem redundant because you will not find any military secrets in this diary. On the contrary, its author writes about anything and anyone, but not about what is happening within the walls of his school. But that was the condition of this publication. This is a very personal diary from the time of the historical turning point, and perhaps that is its main value.
