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11/1/2007

Contemporary Russian Photography and Video Art

Galerie J. J. Heckenhauer, Berlin

Our next show "Contemporary Russian Photography and Video Art" is a selection of works by international, reknown and emerging artists from Russia. Amongst others, we will represent Olga Chernysheva, Vladimir Kupriyanov, Nadya Kuznetsova, Marina Gertsovskaya and Anastasia Khoroshilova. The photographic works include analogue and digital photography and consist of classical photographs, photo collages and assemblages, photo objects and hand worked silver gelatine prints. The photographs give together with the videos an overview of the Russian daily life and social matters of the country. The works have been shown internationally and are represented in many international collections.

Olga Chernycheva (*1962) lives and works in Moscow and is internationally reknown. She works with video, photography and painting, and participated in important exhibitions and biennials, such as the "Russia" show at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York (2005), the Sydney (2006) and the Venice Biennials (2001). Her works are part of important private and public collections (for example the Victoria & Albert Museum in London or the Hoffmann Collection in Berlin).

The work "Sites" (2004/05), which the gallery will present in the exhibition, is a series of photographs made in garden-plots near Moscow in early spring. Vertically placed huge rusty metal sheets separate the land into small sections. These tagged flaky rusty walls represent our ability to create insurmountable barriers for the protection of our world, carried out on a monumental scale.

Chernysheva's video "Marmot" (2001) features an old Stalinist who has fallen behind the demonstration protesting against capitalism in Russia. This work was shown at the Venice Biennial in 2001.

The Video "March" (2005) was filmed spontaneously by Olga Chernysheva in Moscow near the Theatre of the Soviet Army. The video shows the outer, somewhat sad side of a celebration, characteristic of our time, and images of its participants who weren't really involved, but quite sympathetic. They became an event of their own.

Nadja Kuznetsova (*1960) lebt und arbeitet als freischaffende Kunstlerin in St. Petersburg. Ihre Arbeiten sind charakteristisch fur die Fotografie der Neunziger Jahre in St. Petersburg und beeinflusst von den sogenannten "Kunstlerfotografen", wie zum Beispiel Aleksander Kitajev oder Borys Smielov, sowie von der regionalen Konzeptkunst. Ihr Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Schwarz-Weib-Fotografie und technischen Experimenten. Bei der Belichtung arbeitet sie oft mit Rastern, oder sie greift in den Entwicklungsprozess ein. Kuznetsovas neueste Serie "Cheshire Landscape" (2006) basiert auf Motiven aus Lewis Carrol's Buch "Alice im Wunderland".

Marina Gertsovskaya was born in St. Petersburg in 1953 and has been living in Berlin since 2002. She works with photography and performance. Her works are shown f.e. in the collection of the Puschkin-Museum in Moscow and in the State Museum of Novosibirsk. The Gallery J. J. Heckenhauer will present amongst others works from the series "Golem" (2005). Golem has been used as a literary figure by poets of the romantic period, such as E.T.A. Hoffmann and Heinrich Heine and of course Gustav Meyrink. In Gertsosvkaya's works, Golem has the characteristics of Pinocchio. He represents the "loneliness of our modern world of biotechnologies, genetical manipulations, computerization and mass media. Like his literary predecessors, the Golem of the 21st Century dreams of liberty, and he competes with the creator". (Marina Gertsovskaya)

Anastasia Khoroshilova was born in Moscow in 1978. She studied communication design with a focus on photography at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She is represented by the Gallery Ernst Hilger in Vienna. In 2006, she was mentioned on the "watchlist" of the art magazine MONOPOL.

Khoroshilova is characterised by a subjective, documentary style with a simple picture language. In her photographs, she creates sensitive portraits of human beings. She is particulary interested in people, who have been grown up between two cultures, especially between Germany and Russia. Her focus lies on men's physiognomies and attitudes, as well as on small details. Each cloth and the people's surroundings provide her with useful information. Before each photo session, she extensively investigates the environment.

Afterwards, she talks to the people she would like to photograph. However, it is only by "pressing the button" that she finds the final image. The Gallery J. J. Heckenhauer will present a selection of her works from the series "Bezhin Lug" from 2004, which has already been shown in the Gallery Ernst Hilger and in the Margulies Collection in Miami.

Vladimir Kupriyanov (*1954) has been living in Moscow as a freelance artist since 1995. In 1999 he participated in the Venice Biennial, in 2003/04 in the reknown "Berlin - Moscow / Moscow - Berlin 1950 - 2000" show at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, and in 2006 in the Singapore Biennial. His focus lies on experimental photography and photo objects. In his latest photographic glass work (2006), he gives a multliple portrait of a church in Nigny Nowgorod. In doing so, he offers new possibilities to look at landscapes.

Besides the mentioned artists, we will show the Western view on Russia with photographs and photo books from Jens Liebchen (Berlin) and Philippe Herbet (Brussels). Liebchen (*1970) will present photographs from his series "Parameters of Movement" (2003) and the photo book "Playing Fields" (2005). Herbet (*1964) is represented amongst others by the gallery Camera Obscura in Paris, and will mainly show photographs from Novosibirsk and Moscow.

Image: Olga Chernycheva, Marmot, 2001, Video, 2 minutes 30 seconds, edition of 5

Opening: January 12th, 2007 at 7 p.m.

Galerie J. J. Heckenhauer
Brunnenstr. 153 - Berlin
Opening hours: Tue - Sat, 12 - 6 p.m. and by appointment

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