Alimjan Jorobaev

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Description

Alimjan Jorobaev
Mirages of Communism #1
black and white photograph
60 by 98.5cm.; 23 5/8 by 38 3/4 in.
Executed in 1994, this work is number 3 from an edition of 6, plus 1 artist's proof.

Provenance

Laura Bulian Gallery, Milan

Exhibited

Orvieto, Centro Espositivo Palazzo Dei Sette; Milwaukee, Haggerty Museum of Art, La Sindrome di Tamerlano: Arte e Conflitti in Asia Centrale (The Tamerlane Syndrome: Art and Conflicts in Central Asia), 2005-2007
Milan, Laura Bulian Gallery, Mirages of Communism, 2012

Literature

Exhibition Catalogue, Orvieto, Centro Espositivo Palazzo Dei Sette, La Sindrome di Tamerlano: Arte e Conflitti in Asia Centrale, 2005, p. 92, illustrated

Catalogue Note

Alimjan Jorobaev’s Mirages of Communism #1 (1994) is part of a photographic series that the artist developed during the turbulence of the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The artist travelled his native Kyrgyzstan in search of symbols of the past. From old propaganda slogans to derelict statues of Lenin, these once glorified symbols of Communism captured in the series herald the emergence of a new hope for a better future of democracy and capitalism. In this work, a Cyrillic road sign 'Communism' is set in the distance against the background of Tian Shan Mountains. The punctum of this photograph is the road leading away from the place of Communism, as the sign reads in reverse, towards an open-ended continuity of the historical narrative.