Luck brought Ilya Kabakov to Greece. Not only because two of his symbolic works are in Greece, the “Ship of My Life” is permanently in Athens, and the “Ship of Tolerance” is temporarily in Thessaloniki, but also because they are somehow identified with his life and death. “The Ship” is the last journey of man, perhaps the end of his life. “He stands between earth and sky, between life and death. It carries human existence, emotions and memories. He floats out of time,” said Emilia Kabakova in Thessaloniki, telling “K” (05/19/23), including about the monumental installation in EMST. Ten days later, she had to say goodbye to her life partner in Long Island, New York. The great conceptual artist Ilya Kabakov died suddenly and quietly, before his 90th birthday, on Saturday, May 27, surrounded by his loved ones, as announced by the foundation that he created with his wife, and instead of flowers, they ask for charitable donations. to the “Ship of Tolerance” project. This is his last installation, which has been “travelling” for 18 years and is installed these days in the port of Thessaloniki, along with exhibitions at the MOMus Center for Experimental Art, in the Donopoulos Gallery. Ilya Kabakov was born in Soviet Ukraine in 1933. He studied at the Moscow Art Academy, where he began his career as an illustrator of children’s books. His workshop was the center of the fermentation of the alternative – unofficial Soviet regime – art, and he was the protagonist of the Moscow Conceptual School. He left the Soviet Union and settled in New York in 1987.

The great conceptual artist passed away suddenly, quietly, shortly before his 90th birthday on Saturday, May 27th.

Throughout his life, through extensive work and collaboration with his wife, Emilia, “he never stopped telling stories in which imagination was constantly infiltrated into reality,” notes MOMus. From the beautiful graphic series “Characters” to the creation of “ultimate installations” of powerful poetic and symbolic power. His representative work is The Ship of My Life acquired by EMST in 2001. It is considered one of the most expensive works in the collection and, according to art historians, a rare museum exhibit. Perhaps it was temporarily (03/01/2023) removed from the fourth floor of the museum, but now it floats out of time. In an unknown world, perhaps a utopia that Kabakov dreamed about.