Perestroika 

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In his series, Perestroika, Djekshenbaev documents the repaving of the square around the Lenin memorial, at the Polytechnical Institute in the Kyrgyz Capital, Bishkek. First, the old asphalt is broken up. The formerly smooth surface is smashed into tiny pieces, which form a fantastic disorderly landscape. Until this rubble is removed, pedestrians are forced to cut paths through it. This is seemingly a minor event: not the fall of the Berlin Wall, not the scandalous destruction of well-known memorials from the Soviet period. But precisely this commonplace scene comes to symbolize the impact of the changes of the last 20 years - not the political and cultural elite, but in millions upon millions of normal citizens.

 

The title of the photo series, Perestroika, was the main slogan of Mickhail Gorbachev’s political program. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which followed the fall of the Berlin Wall, was a result of the spectacular changes of than period. As it later turned out, the collapse also precipitated injustice for millions of people. Suddenly, and without having any say in the matter, they found themselves under a different system and in a different country with other moral values. Djekshenbaev’s work manages to find an image for the destruction of the accustomed way of life for several generations. His photographs depict life in a ruined world, adrift following the downfall of a superpower. It was not difficult to topple memorials dedicated to Communist leaders; but replacing people’s beliefs, developed inver a period of 70 years under Soviet power, proved far more difficult. People thought change would automatically lead to improvement, but politicians did not take into conservation that change is inevitable painful and requires thorough preparation.” - Gamal Bokonbaev