The astronauts of Kabakov and Diegues

Abstract

Ilya Kabakov’s hero flew into space from his apartment. The Russian hero is an illegitimate cosmonaut. So the room left behind by Kabakov’s hero looks more like a crime scene than a laboratory where a genius has been at work. The figure of the illegitimate cosmonaut is central to the poetry of a young Brazilian poet: Douglas Diegues. An important aspect of the cosmonaut’s appeal is his isolation high up in the sky.