With:
Gor Chahal
Gruppe Fenso
Iliya Piganov
Alexei Shulgin
Anatoli Shuravlev
Gruppe IV. Vysota
With the exhibition “Contemporary Photography from Moscow”, the ifa Gallery Friedrichstraße of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen continues a series of exhibitions that provide insights into the development of photography in Eastern Europe.
After a long period of photography being used for ideological purposes and the subsequent autonomization of the photographic image towards “art photography”, today’s young generation of artists in Moscow is able to use the photograph as an opportunity for artistic expression. The exhibition at the ifa Gallery focuses on those artists from the young scene who have overcome media separatism.
The predominant themes of this photographic art are the staged image as an expression of a constructed reality in reference to the staged image worlds of print media, advertising and computers, as well as photographic self-dramatisation and the use of photography as a metaphor for theoretical discourse.t
For Gor Chahal, the photographic image seems to be a foil for playing with identities. His works are designed to dismantle narratives. His self-representation in a red cap and white shirt in front of a tree trunk is titled “Mushroom”.
The works by the group Fenso reflect the “label culture” and the constructed image worlds of television, advertising and computer games. In the project “Fenso Lights”, the members of the group have staged themselves as players in a computer game, appearing as science fiction knights battling in a forest landscape.
The act of detaching the photographic image from its content is explored by Ilya Piganov in his photo collages.
“Rotating Old Photographs” by Alexei Shulgin shows found photographs that start to vibrate when approached by the viewer, sofixating on the image becomes impossible.
Anatoly Shuravlev explores the phenomenon of historical knowledge and its dependence on forms of representation or the “Politics of Representation” in his photographic works.
The role of the photographic image in the politics of information and news is the inspiration for the works by Group IV. Vysota. Dressed in military uniforms,the three female artists of the group appear in romanticised everyday situations on the battlefront.