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Sergey Sapozhnikov

Sergey Sapozhnikov


pp. 204 con 75 ill. a col., 1° ed.
978-88-317-1337-5
Sergey Sapozhnikov’s appearance on the Moscow art scene has been accompanied by the same kind of electricity that flows through his work. A graduate of a provincial university, Sapozhnikov was rapidly propelled to the most prestigious training institutes in Moscow, participating in exhibitions in Russia and abroad and curating art festivals in his home town of Rostov-on-Don. His career has reflected the dynamic whirlwinds of his photography, radiating an energy that could not, it would seem, be of worldly provenance, but from some impossible power source.  This book will feature all most recent, major series of Sapozhnikov — photographs made in different years and places. Among them «Withdrawal», «Birthday», «My grandmother can make better photographs» and many others. Altogether these works build up the evolution of this young artist's career, showing a big span of interest and at the same time the evolving of his own personal style and approach to catching the reality. The immediate physical context to the adventures of the hero of Sapozhnikov’s work might, in the Russian literary-critical tradition, be called the “foundation pit” (A. Platonov), “untouchable” (F. Sologub), the “construction dump” (I. Kabakov). That is, by various names which are associated with entropy and chaos, destroying and working into the sand all human achievements and accomplishments. At the same time, there are too few emotions for there being an existential moment here. In other words, it is not actually opposition and not actually destruction. Sergey’s work instead shows a young man in a dynamic, suspended and balanced state, in much the same way as a dolphin splashes through the waves. It is evident the hero feels no hostility to his environment. On the contrary, the environment is neutral, even friendly. It nourishes the hero, gives him a feeling of weightlessness. Through happiness and “flight”, we come to another conception of a total dump: that of paradise, offering eternal happiness to its inhabitants. Sapozhnikov’s heavenly space is not textualized in this way, but is instead portrayed through a gap, a hole in socially acceptable behaviour. Here, freedom means victory over the “reign of things”, that oppresses honesty and is cemented by the rules of structuring and the logistical world, all predicated to the process of product turnover.