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Sibérie


2005

Nastia 3, 2005

Siberia
Gouache on paper (detail)

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Sibérie
2005

Khatanga

"The black smoke from the coal-fired power plant seeped into the snow. Aliona was radiant. Aliona is radiant all the time in place of the sun, unknown in this part of the world."

Abstracts

"It was evening time and it was - 30 °C when I arrived at the little airport of Khatanga. But cold is something you get used to pretty quickly in the end, as well as to the night, which always comes around quickly in this season, from three o’clock onwards. Everything is grey though. Black silhouettes slip by, unsteady, drunk on vodka, hugging the walls of glum Soviet buildings, heads tucked into their shoulders under chapkas, wild-eyed: you’d think it was the night of the living dead. But later in the polar night, you can sometimes come across shadows that have nothing beyond-the-grave about them: they’re Russian pilots, looking like a pack of All Blacks: each weighing over 130 kg, there’s nothing reassuring about these guys either. My first impression of Yelena was a bit like this: she was imposing, tough, Russian-style…

But two bottles of vodka later, during an afternoon at her place, she proved to be fascinating, touching and fun, like a Dolgan… (…) The Dolgans, a mixed-race people who gradually settled in the Taymyr Peninsula from the 18th century onwards. Their nomad wanderings followed the migrations of wild reindeer that were the source of their survival and their wealth. Then, Stalinist administration set about making them sedentary, sending them off to kolkhoz and sovkhoz farms, even nationalising their herds. The Soviets also attempted to school them, only managing, ultimately, to drive them to drink. Barely 250 Dolgans took up nomadic life in the tundra again."

Extract from Zoé Zoé, Femmes du mondes, 2007, Éditions Gallimard

Works

Sibérie 3426
Aliona, 2005

Siberia
Gouache on paper
74 x 46 cm

Sibérie 1600
Sweet Home, 2005

Siberia
Middle format Contax 645
50 x 60 cm

Sibérie 1602
La maison du peuple, 2005

Siberia
Silver print
46 x 37 cm

Sibérie 1607
Nastia à Khatanga, 2005

Siberia
Gouache enhanced silver print
29 x 36 cm

Sibérie 3472
Nastia, 2005

Siberia
Pencil and gouache on paper
46 x 74 cm

Sibérie 3474
Nastia 2, 2005

Siberia
Gouache on paper
74 x 46 cm

Sibérie 1609
Chez les parents du fleuve, 2005

Siberia
C-Print
130 x 300 cm

Sibérie 1611
Sweet Home 2, 2005

Siberia
C-Print
180 x 180 cm

Sibérie 1519
Khatanga, 2005

Siberia
Silver print
34.5 x 61 cm

Maps

Sibérie 1496
Siberia, 2005

Gouache on paper
80 x 60 cm

Sibérie 1497
Taymir, 2005

Gouache on paper
80 x 60 cm

Making-of

Illustration Making Of
Illustration Making Of
Illustration Making Of

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