SILK ROAD
First time I met the band “Pospish Potom” in 2018 at the Meteor Festival in Nizhny Novgorod region, where I witnessed and filmed a dog attack on concertgoers. Subsequently, I went with the band on four tours, visited 18 cities in Russia and crossed the borders of 12 countries.
The photos from the “Silk Road” series were taken in the spring of 2023 during a tour throughout Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Unlike European countries, where large population centers are in relative proximity to each other, the geography of Russia and Kazakhstan is directly opposite. Traveling from point A to point B takes 10-12 hours, but there are times when you are on the road for more than a day. Regardless of how interesting the scenery outside the window or how entertaining the conversation between the participants of the trip, the road routine pulls you to sleep every day more and more deeply. Road delirium is something strange and viscous, a substance that exists at the intersection of the dream and the real. My task is trivial and at first glance very simple — to observe and make photographs under any circumstances.
In my work I tried to go beyond the immersion in the subculture, abandoned the linear narrative and tried to present the punk journey as a sign system, where the personal becomes collective, the boundaries exist in the form of walls of small clubs, and the road stretches infinitely.
2023-2024
“Silk Road” series was presented at the exhibition “They were irresistibly sleepy” at the Stella Art Foundation gallery. The series consists of two parts — silver-gelatin prints and an installation with a looped analog slideshow.
Curated by Sergey Balandin and Aleksey Korsi.
Exposition photographs by Natella Sulakvelidze.
Moscow 2024