Biography of T Pavlova

Katerina Yakovlenko 15 Lipnya Evgeny Pavlov. From the series "Love". The curators of the exhibition “crossing the border” Bjorn Geldhof, Martin Kifer and Alicia Nok describe the artistic processes of the late Soviet Kharkov through the figure of a woman. This figure was Tatyana Pavlova - an art critic and theorist of the Kharkov school of photography. It was thanks to her that many heard and learned about Kharkov photography.

She devoted a significant part of her theoretical essay to the practice of photographer Evgeny Pavlov, one of the members of the Time group. Today she remains one of the important figures of the Kharkov art environment. Katerina Yakovlenko talked with Tatyana Pavlova about the Kharkov art environment, scientific activity and tragedy in photography.

Katerina Yakovlenko: Tell us how you were in Kharkov. Tatyana Pavlova: I met with Kharkov in the fall of the year, when I came to study at the art history department of the Kyiv Art Institute now - the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. The first meeting took place on the way to the institute: towards me, along Smirnova-Lastochkin Street, was a man who carried a large gypsum nose in his hands.

Some Gogol's moment. It was [Eugene] Pavlov. He studied at cinema now-Kiev National University of Theater, Cinema and Television named after I. Karpenko-Kago, and came to our institute for gypsum for the course of photography. The next rendezvous occurred at a tram stop near our hostel at Darnitsa. I just flew to Kyiv, with a suitcase of warm things, the motivation for excommunication from classes, and he helped me get into the tram.

After that, other strange meetings followed, and, ultimately, it turned out that it was fate, and Kharkov firmly entered my life. Everything that was connected with Pavlov was an immersion in the photograph. Then he first showed me his “violin” and other series. We watched the slides on the small sketch of the Study. It was, as I understand it, a continuation of the Kharkov apartmentmen, only in the atmosphere of the hostel.

So, in the Kiev locus there was a infusion of Kharkov aesthetics - peculiar, tough, compared with Kiev, which was perceived by us as very soft in artistic, very conformist. At that time, we did not know the artists who were overboard of social art. It seemed to us that Kyiv is a stronghold of the routine of "developed socialist realism." In M in Kyiv, a significant exhibition of American photography took place.

A completely stunning event that many came to. Having defended a huge queue, we received a catalog - the first American photo publishing in our library. In my personal history, a new stage began, and it directly began with a photograph that opened as an extraordinary world behind a secret door. I showed photos of Pavlova Anna Vladimirovna Zavarova -, professor of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture - approx.

We met with her almost conspiracy after lectures. I decided to show her this. The photograph then was not an art for anyone, but it was something out of the ordinary. And she blessed. But if someone caught us at the institute for contemplation of the Violin?! Once my friend turned out to be a fellow student Pavlov brought a box of slides and arranged a show in our room.

He said that some pictures were taken by Zhenya Pavlov. I recognized them right away. These were self -portraits of the person whom she met on the street. The pictures were overwhelming. They had a tremendous power of novelty and irony, and tragedy. There was a self -portrait with a plastic doll lying on his chest. Doused, bending, tragic - anim with torn wings. And all this sprouted mercilessly with a stab of grass.

This could go for slander for socialism, which was persecuted by law. But there was a lot of pains around. From a huge number of lies, pathological larvae of the Komsomol leaders and party leaders, perverted social relations. From the gag number of newspaper strips that we had to digest in order to submit the test on the History of the CPSU. This was a form of mental violence that psychosomatics reacted to.

In some of his works, you can find your portraits. In what series did you first appear? The shooting took place at the Tatar cemetery near the new hostel of the Institute of Arts on Podil. The building was tall, a magic Brueghelevskaya panorama with a view of the cemetery opened from it. This texture attracted Pavlov. Another part of the filming was carried out on the island of the watermen.

In this remote territory it was possible to play any surreal scenes. There was still a man who was collecting empty bottles - an integral stuffage of the park zone. He all the time fell into the frame, which did not contradict the thrashness, which was already a Kharkov line. Kharkov culture demanded exposure. Although there was already spring, early March-it was still cold, and in some places it was snowing.

But it was difficult for me to decide on this step, not therefore. The physicality was taxed by many taboos.

I remember asking everyone except Zhenya to turn away.At the exhibition “Forbidden Image” in Pinchukartcentre, in the Boris Mikhailov series “The History of the disease” - there is one photo where a woman is exposed. Looking at her, I remembered that first shoot on the island of the Waternicians. The photo shows that a woman shirts in front of the camera, realizing the moment of discovering herself in the territory of art.

There is touching in this, and innocence, and trust in the photographer, so that anyone speaks about cynicism. Tatyana Pavlova. The first visit to Kharkov. Photo by Evgeny Pavlov. Evgeny Pavlov. From the series "Home Life Book". Even in X there was this sense of shoulder. We were constantly gathering, most often at Rupin. Alena Rupina wife Yuri Rupin - approx. But I did not participate in collective shootings.

They took pictures of mostly familiar girls. Someone brought the volunteer, someone agreed with them. Everyone shot the same model. You can see how she “wanders” from author to the author. I participated already at the end of X in the group shooting "Mythologies". It was the idea of ​​Pavlov. He invited Mikhailov. Then Boris already had a son Ilya, and we had a son Ilya, but a year older, they also starred.

At that time, there was such a hidden concept for our circle as a game photograph, photography as a game. We lived in a certain utopia: we were free, received a salary sufficient in order not to worry about anything, and from morning to evening we discussed the issues of photography. Mikhailov said: Let's make the book “Game Photography”, no, let's make two books!

This game photograph, of course, was a projection of the carnivalist paradigm. And it starts with each transition period. It is marked and the end of x. There was a release of creative energy, necessary for the transition to the new. We selected myths like keys. The topic was asked, and we began to improvise. Bob, of course, turned out to be the best. It was neither acting nor a parody, but probably, “carnival laughter”, in Bakhtin's definitions.

The vulgar interpretation of the myth, vulgat, was needed to release pure, genuine energies from under the crust of social and Soviet. We walked through this laughter in the depths of ourselves. The game moment is the real value of this series. Interestingly, the curators of the exhibition [“forbidden image”] called “mythology” by street performance.