Alexander Vorobiev Miskito Children, 1992 / Photographer: Alex Webb On the Caribbean island of Corn Island, tourists are shown the house of the pirate Henry Morgan, although it is unknown whether he was here at all. But the local homeless poet John is quite real. He walks on crutches, writes songs about freedom and draws seascapes on shards of ceramic tiles. The poet lost his leg during the civil war in Nicaragua. Historian Alexander Vorobyov flew to Corn Island and decided to walk around it.

Vera Atamanchuk Propaganda photograph of members of the Bosnian SS Division "Handschar" holding a pamphlet entitled "Islam and Judaism", 1943. Source: Wikimedia Hitler called Islam an ally of Nazism, and Muslim imams served in the German army.

Discourse "Desdemona" Alexandre Cabanel. Graphics, 19th century The Victorians treated Shakespeare's characters almost as if they were real people: they believed that they were capable of outliving their author, acquiring their own biography and continuing to exist beyond the play. This was especially true for Shakespearean heroines. They imagined a childhood that the playwright did not describe, and wondered how their fate would have turned out under different circumstances.

Elena Lastovina Edward Hopper. “Hotel Room”, 1931 / Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum A person is reprimanded about his work, and he hears: “I’m mediocrity.” They refuse his request, but it seems that he himself is being rejected. Even minor criticism or rejection can cause shame and excruciating pain that lasts for weeks.

Dmitry Nich Varlam Shalamov after his first arrest. Photo from the OGPU investigative file, 1929 It is still unknown who denounced Varlam Shalamov. However, archival documents have been preserved, from which it follows that even after returning from Kolyma, printouts of the writer’s conversations about literature and the camp past ended up on the table of KGB officers. The names of the informers disappeared from the published documents.

Discourse Prisoners in the canteen of correctional colony No. 27 in Krasnoyarsk, 2000. Photo: Karl de Keyser / Magnum Photos, from the “Zona” series In a prison hospital, a person may have stage 4 cancer, advanced tuberculosis, HIV and failing kidneys, but doctors may still find no reason to release him. Lawyer and former member of the Moscow Public Monitoring Committee Anna Karetnikova spent years visiting hospital cells, seeking medical care for prisoners and fighting for their release.

Yana Gold The Groundhog and the Hare travel around Europe, looking for good restaurants and trying to enjoy life against the backdrop of war. A 15-year-old is accused of killing his father while witnesses can't agree on where the gun was. The family flees Moscow for Bali, but even on the other side of the world they cannot leave the past behind. And people look from old photographs who do not know that they have been dead for a long time.

Cooperative Compost Painting by French anarchist artist Camille Pissarro “Dieppe Fair - Sunny Day” (1901) This article, included in the collection “Modern Libertarian Theories and Practices” ​, is based on the experiences and reflections of the participants of the Kompost cooperative on the topic of subcultural isolation of the modern libertarian environment, as well as a long search for means to overcome it.

Ilya Falkovsky Illustrations for a conversation with a professor about the mathematics of elections were drawn by Sofia Zenina How can a candidate who no one likes win an election? Let's imagine that some voters support a left-wing politician, others - a right-wing one. And then there is the centrist: he doesn’t cause much enthusiasm, but he suits both sides.

Sasha Krop Cover of the first issue of Knut magazine, 1906. Russia rides in an open carriage. Pyotr Stolypin holds the reins, dogs are running around - Socialist-Revolutionaries, Octobrists, bombers and the Peaceful Renewal Party, and the crows of “anarchy” and the BUND are circling above. The flag says “autocracy, Orthodoxy, nationality.” This is how Russia was seen by readers of the first issue of the satirical magazine Knut in 1906: a country surrounded on all sides by internal enemies.

Discourse Eliya Cohen bought a ring and tickets to Dubai: he was going to propose to his beloved Ziv. On the morning of October 7, they arrived together at the Nova festival, and a few hours later they found themselves in a shelter where terrorists were throwing grenades at people. Ziv told Elia, "At least we'll die together and no one can separate us." They were separated: Elia was taken to Gaza, and Ziv died.

Alexander Vorotilin Alexander Vorotilin. "Anas Oberiutis" (2026). "Oberiutka" is a phonemic-zoomorphic example of the author's trickery in relation to the canonical representatives of the so-called "Russian avant-garde". Lacan meets the prairie dog, Marxism-Leninism meets visual puns, and Chekhov meets the "diamond sky" and what's left of the cherry orchard.

Tahir Adilzhanov “I am occupied by the illusion that a new life in itself makes a person different. It’s as if in a new apartment I’ll suddenly learn to talk, stop silently being offended and waiting for someone nearby to fix everything. But why?

Viktor-Deniz Gjuzel “The theater has an almost indecently significant advantage. The performance is not broadcast - it is born before our eyes. One must speak to such a viewer not through imitation of the screen, but through the return of the lost texture of life” / Illustration: Vanya Kobrin specially for Discourse A VR headset and neural network projections on stage do not make theater modern, and memes and game interfaces do not help it understand the digital age.

Valery Belov From the courtroom during the hearing in the case of Zinovkina and Gribul In a courtroom in Tbilisi, the artist draws defendants and guards. Among those who end up on his paper are anti-war Russians who took part in the Georgian protests. Sometimes security looks over the artist's shoulder. Sometimes the judge prohibits him from drawing faces. Drawings from Georgian courts are not just the author’s hobby and not a performance.