WHAT THE EXHIBITION IS ABOUT
Homophobia has become state policy for Russian authorities, who pass one discriminatory law after another. LGBTQ+ people in today's Russia have been made the embodiment of the "West and Western values” on which war has been declared and waged, not least on the sovereign territory of Ukraine.
Calls from government officials to “burn the hearts'' of LGBTQ+ people resonate with conservative segments of the Russian population. This means that LGBTQ+ people are not only denied their rights under law, but are also subject to officially-sanctioned aggression. They face as much danger from neighbours and relatives as they do from security forces.
The situation is most severe in the North Caucasus, especially in the Chechen Republic. Under the rule of Vladimir Putin’s “friend” Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya has become the place in which the Russian socio-political situation manifests itself most acutely. LGBTQ+ rights do not just go unrecognised in Chechnya, LGBTQ+ people are denied the right to exist. We have taken the title of our exhibition from an interview given by Ramzan Kadyrov to an American television journalist. Asked what happens to the LGBTQ+ community in Chechnya, Kadyrov answered: "We don't have such people here".
Calls from government officials to “burn the hearts'' of LGBTQ+ people resonate with conservative segments of the Russian population. This means that LGBTQ+ people are not only denied their rights under law, but are also subject to officially-sanctioned aggression. They face as much danger from neighbours and relatives as they do from security forces.
The situation is most severe in the North Caucasus, especially in the Chechen Republic. Under the rule of Vladimir Putin’s “friend” Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya has become the place in which the Russian socio-political situation manifests itself most acutely. LGBTQ+ rights do not just go unrecognised in Chechnya, LGBTQ+ people are denied the right to exist. We have taken the title of our exhibition from an interview given by Ramzan Kadyrov to an American television journalist. Asked what happens to the LGBTQ+ community in Chechnya, Kadyrov answered: "We don't have such people here".
А collage of tables with data on Chechen residents detained in 2017. Many of them were executed
The events taking place in the North Caucasus and Chechnya are a heightened demonstration of the situation faced by LGBTQ+ people throughout the Russian Federation.
No Such People Here is about the raw material of this demonstration — the lives and suffering of real people. Curated by Anna Narinskaya, the exhibition is dedicated to individuals persecuted and rejected not for their crimes, or even for their actions, but for who they are. Alongside their own words, the stories of these individuals are represented in our exhibition by the objects that became witnesses to what happened to them. In some cases, these are things that survivors were able to preserve over the course of their arrest, torture, and escape, until they reached the shelter. In others, they are ordinary, everyday things that became instruments of violence and torture.
As illustrations to the documented memories of victims and survivors, these objects are important testament to the mortal danger that threatens LGBTQ+ people throughout the territory of the Russian Federation.
No Such People Here is about the raw material of this demonstration — the lives and suffering of real people. Curated by Anna Narinskaya, the exhibition is dedicated to individuals persecuted and rejected not for their crimes, or even for their actions, but for who they are. Alongside their own words, the stories of these individuals are represented in our exhibition by the objects that became witnesses to what happened to them. In some cases, these are things that survivors were able to preserve over the course of their arrest, torture, and escape, until they reached the shelter. In others, they are ordinary, everyday things that became instruments of violence and torture.
As illustrations to the documented memories of victims and survivors, these objects are important testament to the mortal danger that threatens LGBTQ+ people throughout the territory of the Russian Federation.
WHO WE ARE
NC SOS Crisis Group helps LGBTQ+ people flee from Russian North Caucasus republics where they face discrimination, violence, and mortal danger. NC SOS provides safe housing, legal assistance, and financial, medical, and psychological support.
European Queer Alliance of PostOst is a human rights organization working in the interests of the LGBTQ+ community from the PostOst countries, creating a just world based on diversity, openness and respect for human rights.
