Kirill Savchenkov’s photography goes on show in St Petersburg

A new exhibition by photographer Kirill Savchenkov has opened in St Petersburg gallery FotoDepartament. Entitled Avalanche, themes of friendship and geopolitics run through the exhibition, as do the recent experiences of the artist and his friends in Ukraine.

Talking to The Calvert Journal, Savchenkov said: “The exhibition consists of an installation and a video work dedicated to the geopolitical and media events in Ukraine, which me and my friends from Crimea were witnesses of. The installation includes photographs, found material and two texts, one dedicated to events in Ukraine, and another which tells the story of a hiking trip along the river with friends from Kiev and Moscow. The video is a 26-minute long collage of found materials, such as the events in Kiev and my own videos shot in Moscow and Crimea.”

The exhibition’s themes are also consistent with much of Savchenkov’s earlier work, based around post-Soviet suburban towns, which explores contemporary culture, psychology and the experience of urban residents. In addition to recent political events which shaped the artist’s work, PhotoDepartment say that the exhibition also sees Savchenkov consider the urban planning of post-Soviet towns on the fringes of urban spaces, the ties between cities and the human psyche, and the visual flow in social networks and psychological perversions.

Exploring the way in which modern post-internet culture influences the reshaping of relations between people in society, Savchenkov’s work traces how vertical structures of communication in society have given way to the horizontal ties of communities and subcultures.

Born in Moscow in 1987, Savchenkov studied radio physics before moving into the world of photography, and has had his work exhibited in numerous exhibition spaces and galleries in Russia, including Random Gallery, EK Art-bureau and Centre of Contemporary Art Factory. The exhibition Avalanche will run until 17 April 2014.