“What will happen to us?”, “Where will we sleep and where will we rock the baby’s cradle?” children from different European countries sang, who gathered in Thessaloniki to set sail on the “Ship of Tolerance”, an installation by the artistic couple Ilya and Emilia Kabakov.

“We listen to the voice of these children. Whatever prejudice they may have on the part of adults, when they resist, they find a way to communicate through the Art and understand the concept of tolerance in an amazing way. While we hear them, ”Emilia Kabakova told“ K ”shortly before music, folk songs and paintings filled the pier A of the port, where the entire 20-meter wooden boat was built.

Under their leadership, the “Ship of Tolerance” has been traveling for 18 years, encouraging the dialogue of children from different continents with different cultural, racial, religious and other identities to communicate in the language of art. “The thrill that this trip offers us in every place is unimaginable,” Ms. Kabakova describes.

In Thessaloniki, two exhibitions, at MOMus and at the Donopoulos Gallery, reveal the international project of the Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Foundation, with the valuable help of many sponsors. The couple’s eponymous installation “Outstanding Line of Thought” at the MOMus Center for Experimental Art is adjacent to the “Golden Easel”, an exhibition of children’s drawings from Ukraine. “Social networks open windows to the world, problems that concern children are common. In Ukraine, before the war, they had a local character. However, with the outbreak of war in shelters, children drew airplanes and angels. Angels often occupy our work, in which irony, humor and tragedy coexist.

The “direction of thought” on which the idea of ​​the ship was based is a typical example of their creativity. A dark room, reminiscent of a prison or a monastery cell, with a chair lit from the ceiling, makes the viewer imagine a seated person. “Is he a monk or a thinker? It could have been Martin Luther King or a prisoner,” Emilia Kabakova tells us. “The colors, green and gray, are reminiscent of the public services of the Soviet Union.”

“The war in Ukraine is the most dangerous in Europe. He destroyed both countries. Ukraine will be restored. A free and democratic Russia will be late.”

Maybe this is the same country from which he wanted to escape? “I lived in Moscow and Irkutsk with a family that wanted to leave the Soviet Union. I have always been outgoing, outspoken and knew that I would end up in prison. I grew up with a dream of escape. I was looking not for better economic conditions, but for freedom. My family lived not in a dream, but in exile and prisons. I did it. I left her when I was 26 years old, in 1973,” he emphasizes.

Has he finally found his dream country? “I lived for fifty years in the West freely, I freely raised my children. I never regretted leaving my country, I never missed it even in the worst moments of my life. I have always found solutions. When I was traveling in Russia, before the war, I was asked to get a passport. I do not want it. It is much more expensive for me to get rid of it than to accept it. Whoever has a mind, leave Russia,” he tells us.

He was born in Dnipro, Ukraine (1945) in the same hometown of Ilya Kabakov, one of the greatest exponents of conceptual luck. Fate, marriage and Soviet artistic origins brought them together in America, where for 30 years they have been creating installations of a universal scale, and their work is prominent in private collections and museums around the world, as well as in our own EMST.

Is a common origin an additional reason to be angry at the Russian invasion and destruction of our native Ukraine? “No anger, no sadness. I feel disgusted. Nobody expected this. And yet it happened. They lived in wars in Georgia, in Armenia in Azerbaijan, there is war everywhere in the world, children are dying everywhere. But this is the most dangerous thing in Europe. He destroyed both countries. Ukraine will be restored. A free and democratic Russia will be late,” he emphasizes.

If he painted the sails of a ship, what message would he send to Putin’s Russia? “Sympathy”. Until the child’s voice is understood, the ship will continue its journey. What is its final destination? “If we manage to live in an ideal world, then the Ship of Tolerance will fulfill its mission.”