ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN
Local perspective
The project explores the disappearance of stray dogs from the center of Nizhny Novgorod and their displacement to the city’s periphery. Having vanished physically, they continue to return in collective memory.
According to official data, in 2014 there were around 7,000 stray dogs on the streets of Nizhny Novgorod. Thanks to systematic work within the TNVR (Trap–Neuter–Vaccinate–Return) program, by 2025 their number has decreased to approximately 2,500. This dynamic reflects not only demographic shifts but also a transformation in the very image of the city, where dogs cease to be a familiar part of the urban environment.
I document the traces of their presence: archives and statistics, sites of attacks, the work of shelters, crematoria, and cemeteries. At these points, a symptom of absence emerges — the dogs become not bodies, but symbols through which society experiences its own losses.
A psychoanalytic perspective allows us to view human behavioral practices — from the creation of spontaneous pet cemeteries to the inclusion of zoomorphic imagery in role-playing games — as forms of “mourning work.” These gestures transform the death of an animal into a symbolic space where humans unconsciously reproduce their own funerary rituals and narratives.
“All Dogs Go to Heaven” is an attempt to comprehend how the city ritualizes the disappearance of animals, turning them into a mirror of human fears, desires, and memory.
Dima Ptitsyn
City, Logos, and Chaos
The city can be described as a space of logos — of order, rationality, and control — standing in opposition to the chaos of nature, of which non-human animals are a part. In our case, dogs within the city are agents of chaos.
Chaos is associated with natural disorder, animal emotionality, instability, and irrationality. Each time chaos manifests itself, logos responds by erasing it from its spaces and imposing strict limits on where it may exist and what rules it must follow.One can trace a connection between the polis, logos, the human, and the modern city on one side — and between chaos, nature, and non-human animals on the other. The city has no need for untamed chaos; it either keeps it under the supervision of logos or seeks to destroy it whenever it disrupts the prescribed spatial order.
When it comes to dogs, this tension becomes especially acute: our relationship with them is deeply ambivalent. We care for, love, miss, remember, and mourn domesticated dogs. Yet stray dogs embody another mode of being — that same chaos which, for the most part, evokes fear in us: we avoid such dogs, try not to touch them, and tell everyone how dangerous they are.
However, practice shows that relationships between human and non-human animals — even entirely wild ones — can take different forms. In Ethiopia’s Harari province, spotted hyenas are not considered a threat; on the contrary, they coexist peacefully with humans and are even seen as protectors of settlements against evil spirits. This attitude is rooted in ancient beliefs and has been reinforced for centuries by a culture in which any violence against hyenas was taboo, while their role as scavengers of the savannah and guardians of communities only deepened respect for them. Ultimately, the hyenas became part of the city: their nocturnal patrols of the streets are perceived not as chaos, but as a natural element of life — showing that even a predatory wild animal can belong to human space, if only it is approached differently.
The Other cannot be tamed — only coexisted with.
Mark Mefed
independent researcher, expert in critical animal studies and posthumanism
The project “All Dogs Go to Heaven” was carried out as part of the artist residency at Gallery 9B in Nizhny Novgorod in September 2025 and was presented as a one-day exhibition.
Exhibition view
Series of 9 photographs
Archival paper. Silkscreen printing.
Exhibition view
All Dogs Go To Heaven
Catch service archive. Cyanotype. Watercolor paper.
Exhibition view
Offering
Metal bowl. Dog food.
Exhibition view
Image
Mannequin head. Latex mask.
Exhibition view
Offering
Glass tumblers. Black bread. Vodka.
Exhibition view
Single-channel video
Funeral dogs
Trail camera. Single-channel video.