Department of Owls. Private collection is an homage to a conceptual museum of Marcel Broodthaers's Museum of Modern Art, Department of Eagles, 1968.

 

The collection consists of  around a hundred miniature figures/sculptures of owls I started collecting in 1994 in the age of 14 and has been collecting since.

 

The first owl was purchased as a souvenir in Cyprus during our first family trip behind the Iron Curtain. I was born in the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan and my first trip abroad blew my mind, it was a whole new world open to explore.

 

I believe I chose an owl to become my travel souvenir forming a collection, as this bird has a gift of heightened senses which enables it see through deception, illusion, external appearances and to find hidden truths. Interesting fact is that almost identical owls can be found in different countries, which means that most of them are made in China and spread around the world as birds migrate.

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Each miniature owl is labeled and catalogued. A mass produced souvenir becomes an art piece by obtaining a unique number of the private collection Department of Owls, which is safely stored at MMOMA Simferopolsky.