“The collection “In Our Housing Office” was made in 1981. At that time, I was very attracted to the theme of garbage, garbage as one of the main metaphors of our life at that time. At the same time, probably for the same reason, I was making the “Archive of Unnecessary Things,” which looked like a collection of folders, boxes, and crates where I put all sorts of paper rubbish that rained down on me every day in the form of receipts, notes, certificates, etc. Having filled the next folder and stitched it with a string, I wrote on top “Books of Life. Volume 12” and proceeded to the next one. At the same time, I must say, I felt like an employee of some institution to whom I was supposed to submit a report on time for a very important job done. After some time, I realized what this institution of mine was called: it was the Housing Office. It was on its shelves in the archive that I saw such carefully numbered folders.” (Ilya Kabakov)