My Most Important Suitcase

Dedicated to “Anochka”. RIP

One of the best contemporary art museums in Russia Manege (Манеж) does not have a website in English! While, hopefully, this is a WIP task for the new director as Marina Losha  has recently taken over the reins of Pushkin Museum from Irina Antonova, here are some photos from their past exhibition My Most Important Suitcase – a project by  a mortician artist Fritz Roth (1949-2012) who championed the idea of death being an indivisible part of life. 

Source: Manege website

In 2006 he started a project asking random and very diverse people to make their last luggage putting in a suitcase items they want to take with them, writing a description to their suitcase and provide a photo. The exposition in Russia had 50 “German” suitcases and 50 of those made by Russians, e.g., a waitress, a florist, an engineer, a famous actor Alexander Schirwindt. Despite being so different, everything they wanted to take “THERE” were their memories about “HERE”.

Source: Art Guide

I can recall quite a few movies where a protagonist meets his/her past - meticulously selected photos, little objects, prints placed in a box hidden somewhere in a storage... 

So, the suitcases on display contained objects that potentially can be real and appear in a different world: at the end, as Voland, the Devil from Bulgakov's Master and Margarita book, concludes that after death one appears to be in a place where he believes and expects to be...

If you wish to see more pictures, please, click here

To those who speak Russian I highly recommend to watch this documentary on Mysteries of Death. To those who don't speak Russian, I will keep on looking for a subtitles version...