| 4th PHOTODOCUMENT FESTIVAL |
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4th PHOTODOCUMENT FESTIVAL 5-6 November 2011 5th November 2011 (Saturday), 6 pm - launch Venue: Galeria 2piR, School of Humanities and Journalism (WSNHiD), ul. Gen. Tadeusza Kutrzeby 10, Poznań, Poland Music: "DZIWY" BAND and their psychodelic rock (www.dziwy.com) 6th November 2011 (Sunday), 12 o’clock - authors’ multimedia presentations and debates with the audience Venue: Aula Artis, School of Humanities and Journalism (WSNHiD), ul. Gen. Tadeusza Kutrzeby 10, Poznań, Poland Organizers: Institute of Photography proFotografia and School of Humanities and Journalism in Poznań co-financing: City of Poznań Curator: Monika Piotrowska International exhibition: "Russia/Poland" (November 5, 2011 – December 2, 2011)  Over 150 photographs confronting images from contemporary Poland and Russia - whether and to what extent they differ, is there anything that we have in common, or rather are we worlds apart, as some politicians have it? The exhibition consists of solo shows by four photographers: Sergey Maximishin, Igor Mukhin, Mariusz Forecki and Stepan Rudik. RUSSIA Sergey Maximishin - one of the most eminent contemporary Russian photographers, holders of first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest. The series “Imperial Palast. 20 years after” is a multifaceted story; it comes from his album Last Empire, 20 Years After. Igor Mukhin - a prominent Moscow-based photographer with works in many museum collections worldwide, a lecturer at the Free Academy of Photography in Moscow and Kiev. The “Moscow 2000th” series documents life in Russia’s capital and is one of Mukhin’s major projects. POLAND Mariusz Forecki - the only Polish photographer who has worked on a long essay about Poland from the late 1980s until the present. A recipient of a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2011. Fragments of the series: “Behind the Bridge”, “Work Popculture”, “The Wrzesnia Collection”” – all talk about contemporary Poland. Stepan Rudik - an Ukrainian photographer, nominated to the Joop Swart Masterclass 2011 for his series of pictures from Poland. The “Polska” series was made thanks to the scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the Gaude Polonia program. Multimedia presentations program (November 6, 2011, 12 o’clock) The exhibition will gather four authors of photographs presented under a common title “Russia/Poland” at the shows of the 04 Photodocument Festival. Sergey Maximishin will exhibit over a dozen series of reportages not only from Russia. The pictures are either his independent projects or commissions by Stern, Paris Match, Newsweek, etc. Igor Mukhin will deliver a lecture based on photographs from all of his projects to date. Among others, he will speak about his five published monographs, about the youth of the 1980s united in the former USSR by rock music, about post-Soviet monuments, life in Moscow, and his reportages and conceptual projects. Mariusz Forecki will introduce his photocast “I love Poland” with pictures from 1989-2009 and will take part in a debate concerning the perception of Poland with Stepan Rudik. Stepan Rudik will show his own photocast about Poland and a few series of pictures taken in Russia and Ukraine, e.g. Railway Station, Mental Hospital, Veterans’ Portraits. From the Curator’s text: A year ago the biggest bank in Russia was toying with an idea of taking over one of Polish banks. However, it gave up the venture early on. “Who in Poland would like to have an account in a Russian bank?”, quip our bankers. And so a giant bank that earns more than all Polish banks combined and is even now again taking steps to make some investment in Poland, may not survive such a takeover. No one here would shed a tear, however. We know nothing or next to nothing about contemporary Russia. “The chasm between Western fashion and so-called Russian style led to a situation when after the collapse of the USSR, Westerners again started to perceive Russians as enemies, not so much on grounds of ideology but aesthetics, enemies that are less dangerous but more ridiculous”, says about his homeland Victor Erofeev, one of the most popular writers of contemporary Russia. “Among the white race there are no people who would be more anti-cool than Russians”, he adds. We treat the West as our benchmark and keep our distance, which is cool. In this we lose sight of the fact that, as one of the most popular Polish contemporary writers Andrzej Stasiuk wrote twenty years after the onset of the transformation of the political and economic system in Poland, our country “lies flat on its back between East and West”. Stasiuk went as far as the poor South to notice from that perspective that here, in Poland “for some reason everyone looked as if they were wearing someone else’s clothes, as if they had got all of these items of clothing as gifts from a foreign country. All of this was new and yet looked foreign”. Stasiuk gave a cool summary of vision of his compatriots: “Motorcyclists would ride from one traffic light to the next. They’d pull over, rev up their engines and slam on the brakes again. This was most likely their idea of freedom … Every now and then I encountered a convertible packed to capacity; legs would hang down from the car. My country tried to erase the stigma of humiliation”. Monika Piotrowska [quotations after: V.E. - Encyclopaedia of the Russian Soul, A.S. - Dziennik pisany później] Photographers’ biographies: Sergey Maximishin (b. 1964, Crimean, former USSR)  - one of the most eminent contemporary Russian photographers began his artistic career when sent to Cuba with one of the last Russian troops. During a roll call, his lieutenant called out: “Artists, singers, actors, composers and any other scum who do not intend to serve in the army – one step forward”. Maximishin took a step forward, got a Zenit camera and went to take pictures of Fidel (Castro) with Russian generals. The pictures were destroyed by hard Cuban water. Maximishin got a machete and went to harvest sugar cane. He spent his childhood in the Crimean and in 1982 moved to Leningrad. He was stationing in Cuba between 1985-87, then studied nuclear physics at the Technical University of Leningrad (he graduated in 1991), renamed St. Petersburg. He worked in a laboratory of scientific and technical experts of the Hermitage and managed a real estate agency. The bankruptcy of his business made him dedicate himself entirely to photography. He graduated from the Faculty of Journalist Photography at the Journalists' Union in St. Petersburg (1998) and was an in-house photo-journalist of Izvestia daily (1999-2003). In 2003 he received his first First Prize at the World Press Photo Contest (cat. Art and Entertainment), in 2005– for the second time (cat. Everyday Life). Since 2003 has collaborated with the Germany Focus Agency, since 2007 with the UK Panos Pictures. He publishes his photographs e.g. in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Paris Match, Geo, Stern, Der Spiegel, and Corriere della Sera. His work can be found in collections around the globe (Niepce Museum of photography, Fonds national d’art contemporain FNAC, Rotterdam Museum of contemporary art). He has recently published an album Last Empire. 20 Years After. Igor Mukhin (b. 1961, Russia)  A prominent Moscow-based photographer with works in many museum collections worldwide made a name for himself when during the Gorbachev era he chose as his subject Russian youth and independent rock musicians (of the “Tupyje” group). The pictures came out in two albums published one year after another (“Rock in Russland” 1989; “TUSOVKA. Who’s Who in the New Soviet Rock Culture“ 1990). It was then that a construction technician by profession, employed in a design office after graduating from college, decided on a career of an independent photographer (1989). He had debuted earlier in the Artistic Photography Studio of Alexander Lapin, famous for photographing the everyday reality of the declining stage of the Soviet Union. It was Lapin who arranged Mukhin’s first solo exhibition (1987). Shortly afterwards Mukhin became a member of the “Direct Photography” group. Other early projects – such as “City Youth” (1985-1989) which took him e.g. to Moscow, Leningrad, Riga, and Vilnius, and “Soviet Monuments” – further strengthened Mukhin’s position. Ever since, his photos have been published and exhibited regularly in Russia and abroad (publications e.g. in Le Monde, Libération, Time, Rolling Stone, GEO, Elle, Vogue). Since the 1990s he has mainly recorded the life of Russian province and of Moscow. Especially his Moscow pictures are so closely tied with the street that they are sometimes mistakenly connected with the street photo genre. He has published 5 monographs. His work can be found in the collections of e.g. the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Fonds national d’art contemporain in Paris. He is a lecturer at the Free Academy of Photography in Moscow and Kiev. Mariusz Forecki (b. 1962, Poland)  The only Polish photographer who has worked on a long essay about Poland at the time of social transformations since the late 1980s until the early 21st c. Such keen observations of his compatriots have been the leading subject of his art. On the other hand, Forecki was the only photographer to document the last hours of the defence of the Presidential Palace in Grozny by troops commanded by Shamil Basayev during the first Russian-Tchetchen War (1995). He never submitted those photographs nor any others to the World Press Photo Contest. “I never meet the deadlines”, he says, but his signature qualities are good reflexes, precision and a sense of humour. A graduate of the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic) at the University of Silesia. His first permanent employment was in the telecommunications industry; after hours he attended meetings of the Association of Photographers. In 1986 he became an in-house photographer of the best regional weekly Wprost. In the 1980s, as a freelancer, he made reportages abroad, e.g. showing the aftermath of an earthquake in Armenia (1987) and the war in Afghanistan (1988). In 1991 he moved to the editorial board of Poznaniak weekly, in 1997 for a short time worked for Gazeta Wyborcza and then became a freelancer. Ever since the 1990s he has made 7 series reflecting surprising changes of lifestyles and communities. Since 1998 he has managed his own Press and Photo Agency TAMTAM. As of 2006 he has run a non-commercial online Magazine of Documentary Photography HYPERLINK "../Ustawienia lokalne/Temp/www.5klatek.pl"www.5klatek.pl, the best such magazine in Poland according to Press monthly. A recipient of a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2011. In 2005 he received an honourable mention for his long essay about Poland from the Union of Polish Art Photographers. In 2009 he published his photos recording two decades of a new Poland in an album I Love Poland. A member of the Union of Polish Art Photographers. Stepan Rudik (b. 1982, Ukraine)  An independent Ukrainian photographer, nominated to the Joop Swart Masterclass 2011 for his series of pictures from Poland. A son of a photographer. No matter who taught him afterwards, all the time he remembers what his father told him early on: “A good photographer is one skilled to notice a good frame”. Educated at the Kiev National Art and Culture University with a major in Photography, since 2004 he has successfully participated in various contests. Since 2006 has worked on independent projects, including those at the intersection of photography and society (e.g. “And I Grow Like Grass Through Asphalt”). He received acknowledgements for those latter projects from Ukrainian Welfare at the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports (2008). In 2009 he showed one of these projects at a collective exhibition of the Lapin School (of Alexander Lapin) in Moscow. A picture that earned him an award in the World Press Photo 2010 and a disqualification shortly after the announcement of the jury’s decision was one of a series of his social reportages; he became controversial. Fortunately, that very year he received a scholarship from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the Gaude Polonia program for the “Poland 2010” project. In 2011 he was one of the ten finalists of the “Young Russian Photographers” contest. A member of the Photo Artists Unions in Russia and Ukraine. |
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