CIRCLE1 has invited two very different Berlin based artists – Anastasia Khoroshilova and Noga Shtainer, to exhibit their recent photographic works. The two artists first met during the preparation of the exhibition. Although they differ in their personal motivation, their camera technology and the staging of their pictures, they find a lot if common ground in terms of subject matter.

Noga Shtainer focuses on the nature of intimacy, which she perceives as something universally human, whereas Anastasia Khoroshilova portrays exemplary people whose lives are marked by certain contemporary events and circumstances.

Shtainer shows images of “institutionalized children” and a nurse. They come from a home for orphans and other children needing care (home for special children) in Rivne, Ukraine. In Khoroshilova’s „Menschen ohne Territorium“ (people without a territory) are four images (from a series of six) in which young, homeless people fighting for survival in Moscow are being displayed.

Khoroshilova’s “a Prayer” is a rather incidental colored image sequence of winter landscapes and images of a fatherless family, emigrated from a Central Asian Republic, now living illegally near Moscow.

In addition, a sequence of unframed proofs from the studios of the artists are on display. These are selected preliminary examples of many open projects, which at the same time can be regarded as generally insightful for the actual, linguistically artistic themes indicated in the works of both artists. “There was a sea here before” comments Khoroshilova as she presents the remains of a gradually disappearing Russian environment in her color photos. Shtainer forms parables out of the scary feeling of being abandoned and threatened, with her very different black and white photos. She calls it “Homesick”.

During the talks with the artists, a question came up that remained unanswered and, therefore, should be presented here to the public: What does it mean to be photographed?

Text by Jürgen Harten
Berlin, September 2016
From German: Raymond Romanos

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