Jeudi 03 Décembre 2015 11:02:01 par Antoine Coutin dans Expositions

The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography presents a solo exhibition of Mikhail Savin’s work IT WILL BE A COLD WINTER, built around the time and spirits of the “cold” early 1960s.The exhibition marks the centenary of the photographer’s birth.

The name of the project refers to John F. Kennedy’s phrase said after the meeting with the Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev at the crucial Vienna summit held in June 1961. The two leaders failed to negotiate topical issues relating to the Berlin question and disarmament. Kennedy’s words “It will be a cold winter” were to come true just in two months: August 1961 would see the construction of the Berlin wall, symbol of the Cold War confrontation between the two superpowers. A non-party photographer of Ogonyok magazine Mikhail Savin, which is amazing in itself, was lucky to be on official delegations during 11-day visit to France in March 1960 and at the two-day Vienna summit in 1961. The exhibition features photo reports of the official meeting of Khrushchev with Charles de Gaulle and John Kennedy, alongside informal scenes of European everyday life, hardly ever covered by the official Soviet press. A series of winter landscapes, revealing Savin’s profound feeling of space and lyrical nature, serves as a kind of figurative counterpoint to the documentary block.