Is it true that a nose-shaped exhibit ridiculing Zelensky was exhibited in a Paris museum?

In March 2023, a video of an art installation that depicted a nose sucking up white powder circulated on social media. Users of social networks claim that this object ridicules the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. We decided to check if this is true.

In most publications, a short video is accompanied by the same phrase: “An art object dedicated to Zelensky was exhibited in the Paris Museum of Modern Art.” This was written about in Telegram, including in popular channels "VOBLYA"(160 thousand views at the time of writing this analysis), "From the scene"(101 thousand views) and "Putin TG Team"(85 thousand views). Publications also appeared in “VKontakte", on the platform "Zen"and in Twitter.

The video that went viral on social networks is very short, only 9 seconds. On it, a huge nose rides along the platform and collects white powder (apparently, crushed polystyrene foam). This is obviously an allusion to cocaine use. And the fakes about Zelensky’s drug use? spread on the Internet since 2019.

In the Russian-language segment of the Internet, news about the exhibition and the unusual exhibit is not difficult to find: back in September 2018, I wrote about it TJournal. The exhibition, entitled The Way Out, was not held in Paris, but in Italy, in Parma, at the contemporary art center The Mori Center. Article about the opening of a new cultural space in Parma, in the building of a former shopping gallery, published Artribune edition. The life of The Mori Center (it had already closed by 2023) began with the exhibition The Way Out and works by young Berlin artists, including Tom Palluch, the author of the vacuum cleaner nose.

IN Instagram artist has a selection storiesdedicated to this nose: the process of creating the installation, episodes from the exhibition and, finally, the full version of that same video, which later became viral.

All these videos were also published in the fall of 2018, at the same time that the exhibition took place in Parma. Already on September 27, 2018, a video with a nose appeared on the platform Reddit, after which it became popular - the post collected more than 1,500 comments.

In 2018, Vladimir Zelensky was not yet widely known outside the post-Soviet space. In September of that year nomination candidates for the post of President of Ukraine had not even begun, and the second round, in which Zelensky won, took place on April 21, 2019. It is difficult to imagine that anyone in Italy or Germany could have been seriously interested in Zelensky in 2018 and dedicated any installation to him.

Thus, it was possible to establish that, firstly, the exhibition was not held in Paris in 2023, but in Parma almost five years ago. Secondly, the installation has nothing to do with Zelensky. Thirdly, it is already not the first time fakes about art objects supposedly dedicated to Zelensky in Europe.

Cover photo: social networks

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Are the videos proving that Vladimir Zelensky uses drugs true?
2. Is it true that a monument to Zelensky was erected in Milan in the form of a nose with white powder?