Maxim Komar-Myshkin: Vladimir's Night

So clean is Vladimir! We all want to get near!
What kind of frolics are in progress?
Is it a pajama party or, perhaps, a special congress?
And will there be room for all in the little leader's bed?

Vladimir's Night is the chimerical final work by Maxim Komar-Myshkin, one of the most elusive and tragic figures in Israeli-Russian art. Part children's book, part gory political assault and part erotic farce involving elaborately detailed paintings that draw from the most disparate sources, the work is not only Komar-Myshkin's magnum opus, but an instrument of psycho-aesthetic retaliation against Vladimir Putin, whom the artist believed had a personal vendetta against him. Komar-Myshkin committed suicide in 2011, soon after completing the album.

In her annotations, Rosa Chabanova explores the book's many layers, covering such wide-ranging topics as the financial schemes of Russian oligarchs, medieval literature, political assassinations and the massive immigration wave of Russians to Israel. In so doing, Chabanova unravels the haunting story of Komar-Myshkin and arrives at startling conclusions as to what actually transpired during Komar-Myshkin's final years.

Maxim Komar-Myshkin was born in Moscow in 1978. He immigrated to Israel in 2004. There, he founded the Buried Alive group, a circle of artists, writers and filmmakers who vowed in their manifesto to operate as cultural zombies.

Rosa Chabanova is a PhD candidate in comparative literature at the Jaffa University.

Copublished with Galeria Labirynt

Roee Rosen (b. 1963) is an artist, writer and filmmaker as well as a critical voice in his native Israel. He is a professor at HaMidrasha College of Art, Kfar-Saba and the Bezalel Art Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem.