Zonov	Artist MAXIM ZONOV and his out-of-this-world sidekick are the "Cosmonauts." This goofy twosome from Novosibirsk bring back fond memories of "Saturday Night Live" with Belushi and Ackroyd as the "two wild and crazy guys from Czechoslovakia."
Dr. Freud Was Wrong (0:29 min. RealVideo clip)	Many Russians look to Sigmund Freud for an understanding of their problems. In Dr. Freud Was Wrong (1998), the Cosmonauts suggest an alternative remedy.

Dr. Freud Was Wrong (Video still)

Champion body builder (My Dear Video still)

March 8th is Woman's Day in Russia. The Cosmonauts star in the video My Dear (1996), a toast to the women of Russia, and especially the first lady of all the former Soviet Union, Marilyn Monroe.	My Dear (1:21 min. RealVideo clip)
Three Chants (1998) is Zonov's tribute to Siberian shamanism, which has disappeared from the Novosibirsk region. Zonov provides the voice, music, and visuals for the video.
Three Chants (1:08 min. RealVideo clip) Zonov eating (Video still)	Zonov's work appears in regional exhibits and on local TV. He believes that viewers do not understand his idiosyncratic vision.

Anna Poluj	Artist ANNA POLUJ recently graduated from the local Academy of Art and Architecture. Her work is currently on exhibit in the show Ambivalence of Choice at the Novosibirsk Regional Museum.
Head, Before left, click images for enlarged views Head, Afterright
Poluj goes along with Sherlock Holmes. He never remembered an unnecessary fact because memory is a vessel that has a limited capacity. In Poluj's updated metaphor, the mind is likened to a floppy disk, or optimistically, to a large hard drive.

click images for enlarged views Thesis! Antithesis!	Synthesis!
"Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis" proclaims Marxism. Every thesis faces an opposing force, the antithesis, and then these "tendencies" come together in a synthesis that becomes the new thesis of a never-ending chain.

In Poluj's idea for Cultural Information Center (1998), the three Marxist elements become Creation, Function, and Deconstruction.	Tripartite Design Philosophy click image for enlarged view
Poluj's Cultural Center is meant as a replacement for the gray Stalinist buildings and sculptures that delineate the central plaza in Novosibirsk. In keeping with the principles of a democratic Russia, the major monument of the Cultural Center is a light box that flashes pictures of all citizens.	People's Monument

In the early 1990s, a Novosibirsk story made worldwide headlines. A nearby river had cut away its banks and exposed thousands of corpses. Years ago, Stalin's agents had assembled the so-called "enemies of the people," executed them, and dumped their bodies in mass graves along the river.
The bodies had been discovered in 1982, but the KGB suppressed all information about the murders. By the time perestroika blunted the repressive state agency, little documentation other than ghastly memories remained.
Memorial Marker (Video still)	State officials have done little to make amends for the atrocities of their predecessors. The memorial to mark the mass gravesite was organized by a citizen group. Cliffs of Death (1:15 min. RealVideo clip)
Oleg Pak, Cinematographer	The nightmarish events of the past are no longer foremost in the community's consciousness. Still, the reverberations of Russia's difficult history are evident in the country's current indecisiveness.