SPUTNIK FOUNDATION

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PURE FICTION - PURE FICTION - PURE FICTION

For the theme of this exhibition, the Sputnik Foundation wanted to focus on one of the most shocking events of cosmonautics. On October 25, 1968 the Soyuz 2 was launched from the Baikonur aeronautics center with the cosmonaut-pilot Colonel Ivan Istochnikov on board. The spacecraft was to be the target of a space manoeuvre carried out by the Soyuz 3 which, piloted by the Lieutenant Colonel Giorgi Beregovoi, was going to attempt an orbital docking of the two capsules. In those days, the United States and the USSR were racing against the clock to be the first to reach the Moon. Political pressure prevailed over technical considerations and the space race had already claimed some victims. For example, the flight of the Soyuz 1. Starting off badly, it eventually ended in tragedy when the cosmonaut Komarov crashed on his return due to a malfunction of the parachute.   For the next mission, precautions were carried out to the extreme and all signs pointed to a satisfactory result. But it was not to be. After a failed attempt at space docking, the Soyuz 2 and the Soyuz 3 drifted apart and lost contact with each other. When they found each other the next day, Istochnikov had disappeared and his module showed signs of having been hit by a meteorite. In truth, what had really happened was never known for certain and the enigma inspired a series of conjectures. However, the Soviet authorities were determined not to admit to an another failure. They came up with a solution appropriate to their style by declaring that the Soyuz 2 had been an unmanned flight. Officially, Ivan Istochnikov had never existed and to prevent anyone from contradicting this version, they confined his family, blackmailed his colleagues, manipulated files and retouched photographs. Reality had surpassed the most fantastic science fiction plot.   However when fear ended, so did the pact of silence. With Perestroika, the secret documents were declassified and investigators could reconstruct the course of events. With the information currently available, the Sputnik Foundation asked the academic Piotr Muraveinik to curate a touring exhibition which would tell the story of this thrilling and tragic episode in the history of cosmonautics.   In the introductory text to the catalog, Laila Ishi-Kawa, artistic director of the Art and Technology Foundation, writes: "Ivan Istochnikov, the central figure of this show, is a character straight out of a mythical tale. An unknown figure who, due to the discovery of tangible proof and revelatory facts, all of a sudden has become visible. A little Orpheus rescued from the underworld whose dramatic tale shocks and intrigues us... The fine line between truth and the appearance of truth allows skeptics (and opportunists) to think that in the best of cases truth is impossible to know and in the worst, that it doesn't exist. But they are mistaken. You only have to use the right sense to perceive it. Or in the words of Saint Exupery: "It's very simple: only the heart can see with clarity. What is essential is invisible to the eyes".	.  . Top: original photograph sold at Sotheby's of New York on December 11th, 1993. It is dated the 7th of November, 1967 and is signed by, from left to right, Leonov, Nikolayev, Istochnikov, Rozhdestvensky, Beregovoi and Shatalov. Bottom: the same image, manipulated, as it was published in the book "Bound for the Stars" by Boris Romanenko.
	. Ivan Istochnikov shakes hands with the MIK technicians working on his spacecraft.
	. A Soyuz during preparations for take-off.
	. Frontal view of the Soyuz 2.
	. The Soyuz circumnavegates the Earth at an altitude of more than 200 km.
. Metabolic adaptation and resistance tests during the selection process of animals. The dog is "Kloka".	Ivan and Kloka in their historical extravehicular activity.
. In the command module during a training session.	Transmitted image of the Soyuz 2 taken by Beregovoi´s ship.