Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. The Happiest Man

“The Happiest Man” is a vast “total installation” of 2000, which is shown at Pirelli HangarBicocca in a new site-specific version. The work represents the home of the happiest of men, who through his window sees a constantly moving landscape of films projected onto a screen. What we see is a metaphor, at once ironic and melancholy, of the attempt to escape reality which was so much a part of the twentieth century.

The most frequent form of expression in Kabakov’s art is the “total installation”. This consists of architectural, pictorial, cinematographic and scenic elements in a separate space within the exhibition area. Visual, audio and environmental stimuli envelop the visitors who venture into it, giving them a highly original experience of the Soviet world in which the artists once lived.