A culinary intervention at Kunsthaus Hamburg, Buffet 58, recreates a Soviet-style gathering: a table set with snacks and glasses of champagne. Each glass is engraved with the number «58» — a reference to Article 58 of the Soviet penal code, used between 1927 and 1958 to prosecute vaguely defined «counter-revolutionary» acts. Broadly defined and arbitrarily applied, the article represented a constant threat: anyone could become a target, often due to a casual remark or a denunciation.
A glass of sparkling wine, the clinking of glasses are gestures of joy and belonging. But the engraved «58» interrupts the ritual, marking a rupture between gesture and meaning. Even at the height of repression, people drank, toasted, celebrated. Life went on, and that is the point. Oppression didn’t always come through force, but through normalization: through aesthetics, habits, and silence.
Photos: Mattia Quaglia (1), Sven Wied (2-7)