"I've been working for several decades. In that time I've gone through various stages, along with the development of Russian art - the periods before and after Stalin's death. Inthework Gorky Street, with its poor surroundings, one can see the historical environment in which my creative life began. I felt the totalitarian atmosphere, a certain silence of the crowd, from a very early age, but along with this the human element and love for people never abandoned me. Today's Russia afterthe disappearance of the Iron Curtain has joined the worldwide family of nations as an equal. This gives us a chance to look at Russia both as a unique world in itself and in connection with cataclysms of the world at large. All this gives me material for my works.
A new generation is growing up in an atmosphere of mobile communications. People converse with the whole world as they're walking down the street. However, this fantastic technology hasn't enhanced man as a responsible being. On the contrary, he's become its appendage. European civilisation is engaged in a fearsome dialogue with the patriarchal, medieval Islamic world, which exploits its righteousness for a terrorism of monstrous dimensions. We're in need of a powerful idea of a new man, capable of harmonising the complex problems of the world.
Earthshaking discoveries in genetics and cloning once again raise the problem of man's place in the world, of a philosophical-religious rethinking of our dialogue with the vast mysteries of the universe, our dialogue with God."

Yuri Zlotnikov