In the summer of 1990 I first went outside of the USSR to Cologne, Germany. In the beginning I could not look above the trash cans. Filled with bright and unique for my Soviet eyes discarded cans and packages (everything was still packed in brown paper back home), they looked like festive installations, while everything above was totally beyond visual comprehension. Colors, flowers, lights, people, buildings, shops, cars… Soon after, I found on the curb two big bags filled with fabric cutouts of such beautiful material that I not only brought them home (we stayed in the basement apartment under the Gallery Forum Lindenthal), but immediately got into the gallery space and made a playful intervention at Valery Ayzenberg's show.

I made several collages in Cologne at a local garage, turned into studio. Discarded cardboard boxes were used for the backing.

I returned with the rest of the cutouts found in Cologne and made collages in our Moscow studio in 1990-1992. There was a personal show "Requiem" at the A3 Gallery in 1992.