Vendredi 03 Août 2012 15:13:22 par actuphoto dans Expositions

"My horror is that my enemy has no face..." this notation of Heiner Müller gives the title for the keywork of our exhibition. Rarely has anyone photographed reality in such an unprettified way as Boris Mikhailov. Empathy is the other obvious aspect of his approach to all his subjects. He captures the unadorned and the natural; in pictures devoid of aesthetic exhaltation, he concentrates on people and their living conditions. On his journeys through Russia, Germany, and his Ukrainian homeland, Mikhailov has equally observed the poor, the well-to-do, the outcasts, and the homeless. >Look at Me, I Look at Water< was composed in 1999 at the suggestion of the Heiner Müller-Society when Boris Mikhailov's name was found in one of Heiner Müller's notebooks. With this book Mikhailov is continuing, thematically and conceptionally, what he began with his artist's book >Unfinished Dissertation< in 1985. The photographs are accompanied by handwritten Russian commentaries, which together give the impression of a private album which narrates stories from a chapter in the artist's life. Based on the conceptual design he did for the book >Look at me I look at water< Boris Mikhailov has conceived a large group of 30 unique works consisting of various elements, text and grouping of images as well as of different techniques like collage or scratching which are on show for the first time.