Anna Jermolaewa

The Thing (from the Smart Gifts Series), 2026

Handcarved wooden Great Seal, wall paint 51 x 51 x 1.5 cm, 250 x 350 cm

Installation view from: You can count on me, Galerie Molitor, Berlin, DE
Photos: Choreo
Installation view from: You can count on me, Galerie Molitor, Berlin, DE
Photos: Choreo

Jermolaewa looks back to Cold War history in her installation, The Thing (from the Smart Gifts Series), 2026, which replicates a wooden carving of the seal of the United States, with its eagle and motto E pluribus unum, a seemingly banal gift presented to the American Ambassador by a delegation of children from the Young Pioneer Organization, which moved him to install it in his office in 1960s Moscow.

Only 7 years later did the Americans discover that the eye of the eagle concealed a spying device designed by Russian inventor Leon Theremin — a key technological precedent of surveillance mechanisms weaponized by right-wing regimes today. 

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