Russia in Augsburg
Photographer Anastasia Khoroshilova shows her series "Russkie" at Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus between russian silver, cuisine and avantgardistic music.
In the strange intermediate between high monetary value, new russian self-awareness and real instruction on something relatively unknown, beyond the existing modern media culture, is lain the exhibition of photographs by the Russian artist Anastasia Khoroshilova in Augsburg's Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus.
The artist born in 1978 in Russia, Moscow, grew up in German schools and in the traditional downtown of Moscow, the Arbat. In Augsburg she shows in huge Ilfochroms portraits from Russian, rural regions. The series, a total of 125 units, uses classical forms of naive representational portraits for a genuine appreciation of Russian individuality.
The seemingly simple people were allowed to decide where and how they wanted to be portrayed by the artist. Most try to document their profession or their education, a kind of vocational goal. They are shown in a kind of existential pose, an instrument maker in a tasty, but slightly dinky jacket with a very noble-sounding string instrument in his hand, a farmer next to his almost symbolic food-storing, longliving camel, a buddhistic soccer player in meditative pose, some also in a costume, that shows its regional boundedness and mirrors the individual view of life, as the portrait of a Kalmükin in a self-sewed and individually varied garb.
Khoroshilova
reports unmelodramatically about the photographical work with these
people, she has chosen to give an insight into the diversity of the
Russian multi-ethnic state, which the government historically and
still keeps in the view that there is only "one Russian nation".
Neither poverty nor the
relative seclusion of this population, who live without television
and the Internet and thus, like Khoroshilova tells, sometimes do not
even know the name of the president, she sees as a shortcoming or
displayed exoticism. The
individual photographs are real rather self drafts. These,
however, tend in a way to remain in the picture's context and not to
become visible in the visual: for the artist, the design of the quasi
picturesque images of the photography's surface of the same
importance as the interpretation of their history. Due
to the seriousness of the posing people, and the compositional
silence and color balance, all the striking images are highly
prestigious productions, which let be forgotten that they are "just"
photographs, that have in opposite to reality not such an autonomy as
paintings.
In this respect, these portraits by Anastasia Khoroshilova are rather less investigative documentaries than effectively interested in the diversity of beauty. No wonder then, that works from this series are traded by Hilger in Austria and at the Paris Fair of Photography at prices around 5,000 euros per piece. Since Khoroshilova photographed already in 2002 - 2005 in her series "Islander" portraits of people living in isolated circumstances, it is, according to the artist, after the current series and the exhibition in the Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus now something else to tackle.
Her currently occurring work, will, now in a way platinum laminated by the Neue Galerie, soon be presented in the new Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art, the art4ur. The head of the Neue Galerie and the H2 Center for Contemporary Art, Dr. Thomas Elsen, is already working with the local curators in Moscow on a catalogue of the recent works of Khoroshilova.
The
new internationalism in Augsburg, Czar silver (exhibition
"Zarensilber") gives insights into the diversity of Russian
culture, and will surely be awarded by the cities russian-speaking
population, in particular the approximately 50,000 Augsburgian
germans from Russia - particularly because the Czar Silver is
bilingually presented. Although
one might expect that thus the restaurants and snack bars in the city
dismantle prejudices against the Russian cuisine, nothing can be
found except for the excellent, but rather german trout caviar soup
for 5.80 euros in the Drei Mohren - Hotel Steigenberger's restaurant
next to the Neue Galerie. But the art collections and museums of
Augsburg cares themselves of Piroggen, Stschi, Pelmeni and Soljnaka
as tourist's destination, thus, a plenty of events with russian food,
music and lectures are organized (always look up upcoming events in
art and culture at ARTS On com Press Releases) .
In addition, the exhibitions "Zarensilber" and "Russkie" are still to see for several weeks and requests can perhaps convince the rare but existing Augsburger Haute Cuisine like Kahn, the Anna-restaurant, the Ecke or the Magnolia next to the glass palace with the H2 - Centre for Contemporary Art, to be russian inspired. If not, french Haute Cuisine will do its work, too, and be artful at 13.06.08 especially at the H2, when Eric Satie's french avantgarde music - a kind of art d'ameublement ecven comprising the way to dress and to eat - will take part for twelve hours and 840 times :)
Report and Photos of the exhibition by Dr. Ulrike Ritter
Photos "Zarensilber": Dr. Ulrike Ritter and Augsburger art collections and museums
Russkie
Photographs by Anastasia Khoroshilova
14.03.-04.05.2008
Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus
Maximilianstraße 48
86150 Augsburg
Opening Tue 10-20 pm
Wed-Sun 10-17 pm
Eric Satie
Vexations Fri 13th june 2008 - Sat 14th june 2008 20 pm to 20 pm (nonstop) H2 - Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst Beim Glaspalast 1 86153 Augsburg Phone +49 (0)821 324 4155