Petr Lovigin. Black Dwarf
A new generation of photographers explores mysterious Qatar, inhabit IKEA displays and highlight the commonalities between Louis Vuitton bags and Soviet avant-garde architecture.
Young photographers often see the world as ruptured and discombobulated. Alisa Reznik's series is not really even a series – her pictures are of a nighttime vigil in a shadowy city. Darkness and drabness are omnipresent in Ivan Lungin's images – everything in his landscapes moves from the foreground deeper into the shot, to a better life or perhaps to even greater darkness. Igor Samolyot has given himself over entirely to eccentricity, creating herbariums out of rhizomes and the leafy tops of root vegetables, and covering homes with colored tape. Albert Soldatov prefers to express himself with little hints; a picture by the Franco-Polish artist Balthus appears in each shot of his film. And Christto & Andrew, a duo from Qatar, produce portraits of their compatriots, endowing each of them with an ineffable symbolic meaning.
Artists can also inscribe themselves on the world through objects. Olga Isakson does it by means of Louis Vuitton accessories, while Vik Lashchenkov hangs out inside IKEA. Maria Ionova-Gribina turned everything on its head, meanwhile, by offering childless men the chance to "play the role" of young fathers and be photographed with her own children.
