Photo: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870 – 1924) lying in state in the Kremlin. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1924

Important! For the same article in Russian language click here.

Something quite intriguing is happening within Russian-speaking internet during the last few – should you type a fully academic inquiry (at least, according to Russian academic requirements) in national search engines for "Lenin's mausoleum" – the first thing you get (even in top 10 searches) is website pages talking about black magic and occult. Website authors view this construction differently, but unconditionally agree on one thing: the mausoleum of the "leader of the world proletariat” – the essence of a magical artifact, a sort of “energy vampire”. It was built with a certain purpose: to drain the energy out of miserable Soviet citizens on one hand; and to poison the anthroposphere of one-sixth part of the earth with its vibes (the exact territory that was occupied by the former Soviet Union), depriving the Russian people of will to resist on the other hand. Complete nonsense? No doubt. Nevertheless, an intriguing one. Well, probably because some oddities do exist in mausoleum's history. These oddities are the thing we are going to discuss this time. First, let me refresh you memory on the subject.

The 37-year-old French artist Anne-Catherine Becker Echivard’s latest artworks were inspired by the silent movies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton; she uses real-life smelly fish heads as her models for some photos that depict everyday life to address topics.

“Romain Laurent is 29 years old, originally from the french Alps, living and working in Paris. Romain Laurent studied design for 3 years at ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres (National school of applied arts) in Paris and then switched to Photography at Gobelins, l’ecole de l’image, also in Paris. Working as a professional photographer since 2006”.

Michael Zavros is an Australian realist painter. Michael Zavros is one of Australia’s most significant younger realist painters. He is fascinated by beauty and his subjects include leaping and falling horses, men in suits, high fashion, classical mythology and French neo-classical architecture. Every single one of his art pieces looks amazing !Just keep in mind that all the images published here are paintings !

French Levalet is back in the streets of Paris with this new piece entitled ‘Le marchand de sable’/’The Sandman’, a rather literal interpretation of the mythical character in central and northern European folklore who brings good dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of children while they sleep at night. Funny and smart as usual.

French artist, Emeric Chantier, created these magnificent skull-infused plant sculpture. I say infused because I can’t think of another way to describe this unusual piece of art. Emeric is part of the Macadam Gallery and also created other pieces of art in a similar style which contains guns, hearts, hands and cars.

French photographer Laurent Chehere's “Flying Houses” exhibit takes workaday houses and lets them lift the imagination. The exhibit is showing at the Muriel Guépin Gallery in New York. Photo: Laurent Chehere's “Flying Houses”: “The Great Illusion”. (Photo by Laurent Chehere)

Pascal Campion is a French-American illustrator and animator. He studied narrative illustration at Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg, in France. He revels in the company of his wife and daughter and finds it very hard to write about himself. He works in a studio with high ceilings in
San Francisco. Pascal has worked in a wide variety of media, from games, music videos, feature films to books.