© Nihad Nino Pušija

Name: Lena E.
Mother tongue: Russian
Occupation: Cultural Manager
My object: Russian chopping board
My story about it:
This little board is the smallest of a series consisting of five parts. They hang on the wall in my kitchen which otherwise is very German. Inmates produce them in prison workshops in Russia, my home country. My parents took many of those hand-carved kitchen tools with them when they left Russia, but also pictures and small sculptures. They find them too old fashioned, however, and therefore store them in cardboard boxes in the cellar.
At one of my visits, I plundered this “treasure chambers” and decorated my flat with the objects I found. My parents do not understand this. They consider it kitsch from the former times. In my view, it is a way of coming to terms with my identity. It is a nice memory of the Russian part inside me.