Larger prison camps generated, first, the appearance of small villages around them, followed by entire cities and industrial enterprises, some... Read More
Larger prison camps generated, first,
the appearance of small villages around them, followed by entire cities
and industrial enterprises, some of which have remained major clusters
of industry to this day. In essence, the institutions for restriction of freedom
and the space of freedom operated as two interpenetrating structures,
facilitating an exchange of cultural and social norms. We keep on using
many slang terms that originated deep in the criminal underworld, which
corroborates its massive proliferation in the era of repressions under Stalin
and its subsequent inculcation in the Russian language. The series of
objects by Helki, which may appear at first sight to be innocent puzzles,
cannot but leave an anxious aftertaste from a mixture of genuineness
and alienness. How can we become so familiar with something we have
never experienced? Or have we, and simply preferred to forget?
