Ilya was born in 1933 in the former Soviet Union (now Ukraine). He was based in New York and passed away in 2023. From the 1950s to the 1980s, while officially working as an illustrator of children’s books, he continued his unofficial artistic activities.In the mid-1980s, he relocated abroad and exhibited “total installations” recreating Soviet-style spaces at the Venice Biennale, Documenta, and other major events. In 1988, he began collaborating with Emilia (born 1945, based in New York). In Japan, he held solo exhibitions such as “The Life and Work of Charles Rosenthal” (1999),“Where Is Our Place?” (2004), and “Ilya Kabakov: ‘World Atlas’—Picture Books and Original Artworks” (2007). In Tsumari, he installed the permanent works “The Rice Fields” (2000), “The Arch of Life” (2015), and “The Monument of Tolerance” (2022).In 2008, he received the Prince Takamatsu Memorial World Culture Award.