Iskandar Kadyrov on why VOYAGER became an ecosystem, what it changes, and where the project is heading
In 2015, you appeared at the Nekropol exhibition with a coffin shaped like a Formula 1 racing car. At the time it looked like provocation. Now it reads as a starting point. How do you describe that moment yourself?
It was never about shock for its own sake. I wanted to ask a question: why should the last object in a person's life be anonymous? Why is death stripped of language? The racing car was a form — but behind it stood an idea. And it turned out the world was ready to hear that question. The coverage, the publications, the television channels — none of that happened because the coffin was unusual. It happened because the subject was alive.
Eleven years have passed. How has your understanding of the project changed?
I realised that the object is only the entry point. Someone who encounters VOYAGER begins to think — about themselves, about the people they love, about what will remain. That is the real work of the project: not to sell a product, but to open a conversation. Gradually, an ecosystem began to form around that conversation — spaces, texts, collaborations. At a certain point it became clear that what we were doing had long outgrown a single object.
And that is when the name appeared — "An International Cultural Ecosystem"?
Yes. This is not a marketing decision. It is an honest recognition of reality. VOYAGER today is four dimensions. OBJECT — authorial ritual artefacts and memorial objects. SPACE — exhibition spaces and VOYAGER UNIVERSE, a place of encounter with eternity. MEDIA — The VOYAGER Journal and the Architecture of Memory column, where we open taboo subjects to cultural dialogue. And COLLABORATIONS — partnerships with artists, designers, and cultural institutions. All of this existed before — now it has a common name.
You said "cultural" — not "design", not "ritual". Is that a deliberate choice?
Absolutely. Design is a tool. Ritual is a context. But culture is what remains. We work with memory, with heritage, with the way society relates to departure. That is cultural work. And it does not end with the object — it continues in texts, in spaces, in the way people begin to think about these subjects differently.
What does this transition mean for the project in practical terms?
It opens doors that were previously closed. Cultural institutions, foundations, publications, artists — they respond differently to a partner when they understand the scale of the platform. We stop being "the company that makes unusual coffins" and become a serious platform for conversation about memory and contemporary culture.
And what does it offer the world — beyond the project itself?
Death remains the last great taboo. We have learned to speak about illness, about ageing, about loss — but about departure itself we stay silent. Yet the way a society relates to death directly reflects its maturity. VOYAGER consistently opens that conversation — without sensationalism, without fear, through form and meaning. I believe this is necessary. And I believe the world is ready for it.
The new domain is voyagereternity.com. Why "eternity"?
Because it is honest. We are not in the business of death — we are in the business of eternity. Of memory that remains. Of the bridge between those who have gone and those who remain. Eternity is not rhetoric — it is precision.
What comes next?
A digital archive. A global tour. New collaborations. VOYAGER UNIVERSE — a space we have been building for a long time. But above all — to keep the conversation going. As long as there is memory, there is work to be done.