Forced Omission is a long-term multimedia project by artist Daria Irincheeva exploring silenced histories, cultural erasure, and the persistence of unprocessed trauma.

The project examines the repression of intellectuals under the Soviet regime and its connection to contemporary forms of authoritarianism. Rooted in Irincheeva’s family history, including the execution and deportation of relatives during the Soviet era and her own estrangement from Russia after publicly opposing the war in Ukraine, Forced Omission is an act of resistance and an attempt to heal.

The project consists of a series of oil paintings based on books written by intellectuals who were imprisoned, executed, or persecuted by the Soviet state. By removing graphic design elements from original book covers, Irincheeva transforms these objects into visual metaphors for censorship, disappearance, and the deliberate erasure of memory.

Focusing on the Stalinist period and the Great Terror (1937-1938), as well as the broader history of repression against intellectuals in the Soviet Union, Forced Omission brings attention to thousands of suppressed writers, scientists, philosophers, and artists whose works and lives were targeted by political persecution. Through painting, archival research, performance, and sound, the project explores how histories are erased, and how they can be recovered.

Forced Omission continues Irincheeva’s decade-long artistic investigation into memory, absence, and the politics of knowledge, following her earlier series Empty Knowledge (2011-2019). She holds an MFA from Columbia University, New York. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria), the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (New Paltz, NY, USA), Pushkin House (London, UK), the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna (Italy), the 58th Venice Biennale, V-A-C Zattere (Venice, Italy), and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

Forced Omission is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, thanks to the sponsorship of Unison Arts Center in New Paltz, New York.