A total installation is a whole work, calculated on the reaction of the viewer who is inside the object. The founder of the conceptual direction was Ilya Kabakov. In his work, the author focused not so much on the space and volume with which he works, but on the plot and idea.

The total installation is reminiscent of a theatrical scenery or a cinematic film set. The spectator, in this case, acts as a kind of actor or becomes part of the installation art. The main thing in this case is the feeling and reaction that arises from the scenery, lighting, sound, the arrangement of rooms, and objects, drawings, paintings, texts - become only elements for the whole.

The total installation “Ecological Life” (2001) by Artur Klinov is the artist's first large-scale composition from the series of installations “Sweet Straw Life” (2001–2004). It was a room with the usual set of furniture (window, armchair, bedside table, piano, floor lamp, aquarium) and a couple on the bed. The total installation offered viewers to feel like a guest in someone else's Belarusian home.

In 2019, at the 58th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Belarusian pavilion presented the total installation Exit. The author of the concept of sculptures was Konstantin Selikhanov, art critic - Olga Rybchinskaya. The exposition is based on the interaction of five sculptural impersonal figures of human height, each characterized by a certain action and state. All objects, sound effects and symbols create a single device, interacting with each other. The project responds to the theme of the biennale - May you live in interesting times ("So that you live in interesting times"). The installation explores the complexities of human life in an era of overcrowding of the information field and change, the search for a way out, the idea of the facelessness of modern man.