Vyacheslav Shlyakhov was born in Irkutsk (Russia) in 1952. He was a qualified lawyer, artist, political scientist, and journalist. In 1983 he and his German wife moved to East Berlin, where he worked as an artist and designer. In 2004 he returned to Russia, where he died in 2021. His Wall painting “Die Masken” (The Masks) portrays a masquerading society.
The Wall painting “Die Masken” (The Masks) by Russian artist Vyacheslav Shlyakhov is 40 metres long. It shows a frozen, crumbling face mask and a masked figure poised with outstretched arms as if about to fly across the picture. With this painting the artist commented that the revolution had forced German society to throw off one mask but that it had soon assumed a new one. At the same time, he aimed to convey that although society had outwardly changed, it essentially remained the same.
Vyacheslav Shlyakhov alias Irkut Slavin was born in Irkutsk (Russia) in 1952. A qualified lawyer, artist, political scientist, and journalist, he moved with his German family to East Berlin in 1983. Here, he worked as a cinema-poster painter and poet, interior designer, and caricaturist. He co-founded the Russian society Club Dialog in Berlin before returning to Russia. He was unable to travel to Berlin in 2009 due to unexpected bureaucratic hurdles; Shamil Gimayev restored his Wall painting “Die Masken” (The Masks) for him. Vyacheslav Shlyakhov died in 2021.