In his 1919 essay Das Unheimliche (The Uncanny), Sigmund Freud examines the etymology of heimlich, a term whose meanings range from homely and familiar to concealed and secret, gradually converging with its apparent opposite — unheimlich, the uncanny. Freud concludes that the uncanny is not something alien but something once familiar that has become estranged.

Against the backdrop of last year’s tragic events across the post-Soviet region, I find myself asking: where do the so‑called patriotic, openly jingoistic ideas that fuel wars originate? Where does nostalgia for lost greatness take root? Perhaps, as Freud suggests, one must look for the uncanny — the unheimlich — within the domestic, the ordinary, the seemingly familiar.

Pavel Otdelnov. Installation for the exhibition "War museum", Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2015, installation. Private collection

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2015, installation. Fragment

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2015, installation. Fragment

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2015, installation. Fragment

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2024, Installation. 150 x 210

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2024, Installation. Fragment

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2024, Installation. Fragment

Pavel Otdelnov. Unheimlich. 2024, Installation. Fragment

Pavel Otdelnov. No flights today. 2015, oil on canvas, 160x230. Private collection