New installation "6609"

In the summer of 2023, the GULAG History Museum and the Tikhaya Studio from Nizhny Novgorod held a joint art residency with artists working with the theme of collective memory. Two site-specific projects of Lena Lisitsa and Alexey Starkov were the result of the residency. 

Lena Lisitsa's installation "6609" is an attempt to artistically comprehend the GULAG History Museum's work on studying of mass graves on the former NKVD special facility "Kommunarka".

"... never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee" — these words from John Donne's sermon became popular after Ernest Hemingway's book came out, Lena Lisitsa says.

6,609 people were buried at the Kommunarka since 1937 to 1941.

"I let this statistic sound. My installation is a soundscape that changes throughout time under the influence of nature. 6,609 bells ringing in the wind slowly oxidize and fall silent," the artist explains.

You can see the installation for free in Pavilion in the Memory Garden until January 8, 2024.