Exhibition: Igor Samolet. Herbarium / 17.10 – 26.11.2015

FotoDepartament presents:

Igor Samolet / Moscow

Herbarium

17th October – 26th November

Opening reception: 17th November, 18:00, artist-talk – 18:30

Location: FotoDepartament, 24 Vosstaniya St. / «Fligel» Creative Space / 1st floor

Entry is free

Curator: Anna Zaitseva (The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow)

About the project:

I started to shoot this project in a small village on the North of Russia. It has to be said that in Russia almost every family owns a land alongside their city apartment. On that land they have a vegetable garden to cultivate vegetables, flowers, and fruits. This tradition appeared during the Soviet times and it goes on since then, as it is believed that vegetables cultivated by your own effort are more ecological. Such a land is called dacha and usually life is a full swing there only in summer. My family’s garden is in a village that was abandoned due to lack of workplaces in the countryside. The houses were sold, and one of them became our dacha. I found a bunch of old photos on the attic of the people that had lived in that house. The photos were taken in the 60s. It was interesting to look through them and to guess the lives of the portrayed guys and girls. I felt like I wanted to give those photos a new life, to continue the story of the village. It was time to reap a harvest, and the process of working on the land hit me upon an idea of going back to the roots, to the history of that place. The idea of earth nourishing plants, as well as the past nourishing the future, was as natural as connecting my self-portraits with the old shots. That is how I wanted to become closer to that place and to continue its chronicles. I gave my self-portraits different feelings, from mystical to funny, which filled my life in the countryside. Covering the face with masks from the nature’s materials, I wanted to be lost in the environment to feel better the place.

About the photographer:

Igor Samolet

Born in 1984, Russia

Documentary photographer. The lead character of his works is a person hopping, making mistakes. The main theme of his creation is human relations. Working on projects for a long time and in personal places, the author reaches the necessary level of truth and openness and gets the possibility to see not only the joyful part of life. Igor is interested not in outer reasons of his characters’ actions, but the nature of their intimate cravings and wishes.

Education:

2011 — 2013 Moscow Photography and Multimedia School n.a. Rodchenko
2003 — 2008 Syktyvkar State University, Graphic designer

Selected exhibitions:

2015 — «Competitive Exhibition Photomania 2015», Festival “Baltic Biennale of Photography”, Kaliningrad, Russia
2015 — «Herbarium» (solo), MOSCOW MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (IX Moscow International Biennale Fashion and style in photography 2015), Moscow, Russia
2015 — «The Smell Of Dust» Brazil, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands
2014 — «Troublemakers» Flakon, Moscow, Russia
2014 — «SNOECKSshow» Schipperskappel, Brugge, Belgium
2012, 2013, 2014 — «Mooseberry. International plein air» Syktyvkar, Russia
2014 — «Young Russian Photography» Norilsk, Syktyvkar, Russia
2014 — «Generation START», Manifesta10, St. Petersburg, Russia
2014 — «Inventing everyday life» Manifesta10, St. Petersburg, Russia
2014 — «Twelve thinking photographers» Manifesta10, St. Petersburg, Russia
2014 — «I live in a rosette»(solo), ROSIZO, Moscow, Russia
2013 — «Most», Slubice, Poland
2013 — «Five» Gallery HilgerNEXT, Vienna, Austria
2013 — «To See» Fotodepartament, St. Petersburg, Russia
2013 — «Fotobase» All Russian Decorative Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
2013 — «Distance» Fabrika, Moscow, Russia
2013 — «The happy end» МАММ, Moscow, Russia
2012 — «Steam»VINZAVOD (solo), Moscow, Russia
2012 — «Closed during restorations. Internal works» ARTPLAY, Moscow, Russia
2008 — «Balcony» (solo), Gallery Shuperski, Poznan, Poland
2007 — «№7» (solo), Syktyvkar, Russia