Victor Bout showed his prison pictures

“The problem was not to forget the native language”

Entrepreneur Victor Bout opened today an exhibition of his paintings, which he called “My coast is a thin line” (a quote from the song for the movie “Seventeen Moments of Spring”). The exhibition is held at the Ulan-Ude Contemporary Art Center. The presented works were written by the author during the years of imprisonment in an American prison.

Entrepreneur Viktor Bout, sentenced in 2012 in the United States to 25 years in prison for arms trafficking, returned to his homeland 10 years later – in December last year, the Russian entrepreneur was exchanged for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who was accused of drug smuggling in the Russian Federation.

The event was attended by State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky, as well as the Minister of Culture of Buryatia Soelma Dagaeva. At the opening of the exposition, she noted with regret that many paintings did not reach Russia.

“As we know, most of the collection remained in the United States, perhaps even in the hands of prison guards,” said Dagaeva. – However, these works are enough to understand that even in the most difficult periods of life a person can turn to creativity and find peace in it.

“Through his paintings, the author tells his story, shows his worldview, reveals his soul to us,” LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky shared his impressions of the exhibition with MK. – We fully support Viktor Bout in his desire to fulfill himself. His exhibitions are always sold out, because its author is an interesting, holistic personality, a real hero of our time.

Among the objects of Bout’s work are famous actors, for example, Andrei Mironov and other famous people. For the guests of the exhibition, Victor Bout gave a tour, one of the interesting elements of which was the scheme of his prison cell on the floor, so that everyone could feel the space in which the paintings were painted.

– Of course, any creativity, especially in difficult conditions, is an opportunity to somehow look at yourself from the outside, get into a completely different dimension, get to some depths of your inner self, find the answers that we are looking for in everyday life, – said “MK” Viktor Bout. – For me, it was also an opportunity to be alone with my homeland, somehow live with it in the same information field. Therefore, most of my works are somehow connected with Russia. This is probably such a subconscious desire to remain Russian … The problem was not to forget the native language. It was the drawing, what I tried to portray: actors, famous people, and nature, that helped me to go through all the trials in a balanced way.