Anastasia Khoroshilova

Anastasia Khoroshilova is born 1978 in Moscow, Russia. She currently spends her time in both Moscow and Berlin. She belongs to "The Russian Union of Art Photographers" in 1997. Anastasia Khoroshilova studied photography at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Since 2012 she has lectured for "Project Photography" at the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia, Rodchenko Art School. In 2016 she became a member of "Deutsche Fotografische Akademie", the German Academy of Photography.

The artist is known for her photographic portraits of some shocking events of her time. In her work, Khoroshilova scrutinizes the mechanisms of real events, how the media deals with them, their transience, and the personal standpoint of the survivors, as she devotes herself to an ethnographic photography and the dynamics of real life.

Starie Novosti (Old News)

Anastasia Khoroshilova’s installation Starie Novosti is currently to be seen in Venice at the historic Zenobiana Library, built in 1777 by Tommaso del Temanza. In stark contrast to the fresco painted in subdued pastel colours on the ceiling of the plush loggia, you find nine photo light boxes (100 x 80 x 15 cm) formally reminiscent of both skyscraper architecture and military or expedition cases. Moreover, the international designations visible on them give the works “obviously” brought and deposited here the transport character of a temporary temporality.

Nearly lifesize portraits of women, in richly contrasting colours, show mothers from the town of Beslan in the Caucasus who lost their children during the tragic hostagetaking at the school in North Ossetia (Russian Federation) in September 2004.

The photographs date from 2010, when the artist sought out residents of Beslan to investigate how the memory of this human catastrophe was lost and to highlight its collective transience. Objects with panels which can be opened and closed like winged altarpieces, simultaneously show small television monitors with news clips from the now forgotten hostage drama, which shocked the world from 1 to 3 September 2004.

For this Russian artist, Starie novosti is a critical examination of “the theme of temporariness, pliability, and the frailty of a society’s collective memory, even the memory of the fate of thousands, millions, of people. In many cases, human compassion and empathy prove very shortlived, so much so that ‘individuals’ feel society has betrayed them when the fact of a tragedy is forgotten so quickly.”

Dynamics of realtime

This Moscowborn artist, who originally wanted to study photojournalism, combines a variety of media in her installation: film documentation and portraits and also object architecture. TV monitors transmit the news: Terrorists, mainly Chechen and Ingushetian, had chosen 1 September 2004 to storm the school; this was the start of the new school year when entire families traditionally accompanied their children to Middle School No. 1. More than 1,127 children and adults were held there, in their power, for three whole days. This state of emergency plunged the little town into the full glare of the global news broadcasts.

The world followed a drama beyond imagination: the release of Chechen rebels in prison was demanded in exchange for the lives of mothers and children. The underlying political background is the disintegration of the previously supreme authority of the Soviet Republic into new states and the struggle for independence of some of the republics in the Caucasus.

Like a crime serial, the intensity of the moving images left the world breathless. Every development was recorded: the statements of the then Russian president Vladimir Putin; the helpless fathers with shotguns beside the highlyarmed Russian security forces which had encircled the school building. After three days of high tension the drama had escalated so much that the Russian counter terrorism forces, the ALFA and Wympel units, ultimately stormed the building, but with the death of 331 hostages, according to official figures. The world found itself confronted with the traumatic images of a bloodbath: dead mothers and children, countless people severely injured and the chaos of lynch law. The massacre became a landmark among catastrophes, going well beyond all those previously imaginable. After all the international interest taken in these traumatic events, the media suddenly fell silent on the subject of the dead and the mourning before lapsing into the nothingness of forgetfulness.

Ethnographic photography

In 2005, Anastasia Khoroshilova had just completed her studies under Jörg Sasse at the renowned Folkwang School in Essen. When she heard that some of the child hostages were coming to Germany with their parents to recuperate at Bad Tölz in Bavaria, she went to spend a week with the survivors. However, as she reported, nobody was able to talk about the catastrophe. The children did play, but they seemed to have been turned to stone. So she asked their parents’ permission to take their photographs. For this series, Out of Context, the children were put into their Sunday best, sometimes even their national costume. In this new selfdepiction, however, there is an evident discrepancy between the new environment – a landscape of unspoiled mountains and meadows – and the person in the selfpresentation, bewildered and helpless at the prospect of possible selfdiscovery.

This interest in social groups is anchored in Khoroshilova’s own history. After perestroika, her parents sent her to a boarding school in northern Germany when she was only fifteen years old. Here she came to know a quite different school system where opinions were openly expressed, and at the same time became familiar with the isolation of boardingschool life. With this change and her voluntary exile, she developed her insight into the Others, the minorities.

The name of the school newspaper, Insulaner, later inspired her major work Islanders (2002—2005), in which she shows “the ambivalence between individuality and group membership, freedom and tradition, by which people and their surroundings influence each other, both positively and negatively.”

For her series Russkie (2007), she travelled through rural Russia from west to east, “a world far removed from the excitement of the media, fast mass consumption and virtual network hysteria,” in order to get into a conversation with the inhabitants.3 Through respectful dialogue, she asked the people themselves to give their own views on postSoviet history. In contrast to the global concept of “Russians” she wanted to set the subjects of the portraits against the backdrop of their local and individual identity, in their sociocultural environment, surrounded by their everyday objects and as part of an ethnicity.

Among the books published by Khoroshilova are: Russkie (EIKON/ÖIP, Vienna, 2008), The Narrow Circle (Contrasto, Rome, 2008), Five Stories (Paradox, Edam, 2007), Islanders 2003-2006 (Centro per l´arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato / Kunsthalle Lingen, 2006), Notes On The Way (The State Russian Museum / Ludwig Museum in Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, 2006) and Bezhin Meadow (Edit. Trefoil, 2005 Moscow).

Khoroshilova had numerous groups exhibitions as well as solo shows. In the framework of the IPRN project Changing Faces, she was invited in 2007 by the Master’s in Photographic Studies of the University Leiden and Paradox to do a commission dealing with work.

EXHIBITIONS (single):

2020

Früher war hier das Meer, Kunstverein zu Rostock, Rostock (DE)

Ein Teil der Welt, Goldbergkunst, Goldberg (DE)

Berlin. Fasanenplatz, Kommunale Galerie Berlin, Berlin

2018

Once the sea was here, Hidegszoba studio, Hungarian Month of Photography, Budapest, curated by Kati Simon

2017

Once the sea was here, Kühlhaus Berlin, advised by Eleonora Frolov und Marianne Kapfer, in dialogue with Matthias Koch

2015

Die Übrigen, Diehl Cube, Berlin

Kasaniya / Tracks, HilgerBROTKunsthalle, Vienna

2014

STARIE NOVOSTI (OLD NEWS), Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris

STARIE NOVOSTI (OLD NEWS), National Centre Of Contemporary Art / branch of North Caucasus, Vladikavkaz, Russia

2012

STARIE NOVOSTI (OLD NEWS), Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland

2011

STARIE NOVOSTI (OLD NEWS), Hilger Contemporary, Vienna

STARIE NOVOSTI (OLD NEWS), a collateral event of the 54 International Art Exhibition (La Biennale di Venezia)

Biblioteca Zenobiana del Temanza, Venice

2010

Anastasia Khoroshilova, Gisèle Linder Gallery, Basel, Switzerland

Anastasia Khoroshilova, 9,5% plus, International Month of Photography in Bratislava, curated by Evgeny Berezner and Irina Chmyreva

2009

Russkie, LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, Germany

Baltiysk, State Art Gallery, Kaliningrad, Russia

Russkie, City Exhibition Hall, Petrozavodsk, Russia

Exercises, MK Galerie, Berlin

Russkie, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow

Exercises, Stella Art Foundation, Moscow

Russkie, Gallery Impronte Contemporary Art, Milan

2008

The Narrow Circle, Sala Santa Rita, Rome

Russkie, Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus, Augsburg, Germany

2007

Islanders 2003-2006, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy

Islanders 2003-2006, Kunsthalle Lingen, Lingen

Russkie, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna

Russkie, Galería Fúcares, Madrid

Five Stories, Groot BV, Edam, Netherlands, curated by Bas Vroege // Paradox

2006

Notes On The Way, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Islanders, Corkin Shopland Gallery, Toronto

Notes On The Way, National Library of Czech Republic / Clementinum, Prague

Bezhin Meadow, Museum Sacharov-Centre, Moscow

Anastasia Khoroshilova 2002-2006, Bumpodo Gallery, Tokyo

2005

Bezhin Meadow, Goethe-Institut / Galerie Condé, Paris

Bezhin Meadow, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna

Bezhin Meadow, Galería Fúcares, Madrid

2004

Islanders, Galerie Ernst Hilger (Mezzanin), Vienna

GROUP SHOWS (selection):

2021

Alanica, 13th International Festival of Contemporary Art, Vladikavkaz, Russia

Art in crisis?, Lachenmann Art, Frankfurt am Main (DE), curated by Dr. Anett Göthe und Deniz Alt

2020

Focus Berlin, Kühlhaus, Berlin

Photography meets painting, Hilger NEXT, Vienna

Non-Gasoline Stations, Artphilein Editions / Spazio Choisi, Lugano (CH)

Non-Gasoline Stations, i2a Instituto Internazionale die Architettura, Limonaia di Villa Saroli, Lugano (CH)

2019

The Missing Planet, Visions and revisions of “Soviet Times” from the Pecci Centre’s and other collections, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy, curated by Stefano Pezzato and Marco Scotini

Women in 3 acts, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, curated by Kati Simon

1000 Wirklichkeiten – 100 Jahre GDL/DFA, House of Photography, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, curated by Wolfgang Zurborn

NABU: Planet Art Festival, Kühlhaus Berlin, curated by Marianne Kapfer

2018

Women in 3 acts, INDA Gallery, Budapest, curated by Kati Simon

Collector’s world – ein Blick in die Sammlung Hilger. Von Beuys bis Warhol. Museum Angerlehner, Thalheim beim Wels, Austria

Mensch – Kosmos! Eine Sehsucht nach der weiten Welt, curated by Eleonora Frolov, Galerie Altes Rathaus, Worpswede, Germany

2017

Aging Pride, Lower Belvedere, Vienna, curated by Sabine Fellner

Translation // Le vent nous portera, Communal Gallery Berlin, curated by Dr. Christine Nippe

10 Years Old. 2007-2017: a history of the world told through the images of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio die Modena Collection, curated by Filippo Maggia, Chiara Dall’Olio

2016

Sein. Antlitz.Körper. Kirchen öffnen sich Kunst. Berliner Dom / www.sein-antlitz-koerper.de, curated by Alexander Ochs

Anastasia Khoroshilova. Noga Shtainer, Circle 1, Berlin, advised by Jürgen Harten

2015

Alanica. The Experimental Method. Museum and Exhibition Center “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman”, Special project of the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

Strange Worlds, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena, Italy

2014

Destini/Storie/Vite, CAMeC – Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea della Spezia, La Spezia, Italy, curated by Francesca Cattoi and Filippo Maggia

Heimat? Osteuropa in der zeitgenössischen Fotgrafie (Home? East Europe in contemporary photography), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, Germany, curated by Dr. Agnes Matthias

Destination – Karelia, City Exibition Hall of Petrozavodsk, Russia, with Jaakko Heikkilä, curated by Georgy Nikich

Destination – Karelia, Carelicum, Museum of North Karelia, Finland, with Jaakko Heikkilä, curated by Georgy Nikich

2013

Points on the Map – The Representation of Conflict in Cultural Space, First Beijing Photo Biennale, Beijing World Art Museum, curated by Bas Vroege

Destination – Karelia, parallel program of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Cultural Centre ZIL, Moscow, curated by Georgy Nikich

Drifting, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin / curated by Valerie Smith

Mother Russia, The Salt Yard, Hong-Kong / curated by Steve Bisson

2012

“Behind landscape”, H2 – Center for Contemporary Art at Glass Palace, Augsburg, Germany / Curated by Dr. Thomas Elsen

“Under a tinsel sun”, III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow / curated by Kathrin Becker

Russian Renaissance, Brot Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria

The World in London, commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery, London

2011

“Proches”, Docks en Seine, Paris

“Gates and Doors”, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg / curated by Alexander Borovsky

“Where is my Place?”, Contemporary images on national identity from the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena collection, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice

2010

1st Ural Industrial Biennal of Contemporary Art / Special project: “iskusstvo i zhizn” (“Art and Life”), Installation at Uralmash Factory (Ekaterinburg)

La Leçon de l’Histoire, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Curated by Joseph Backstein

“Young Academy 2010 at Hanseatenweg”, Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste), Berlin

Liberty, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, as a part of: “Qui Vive?” Moscow International Biennale for Young Art

“Indposhiv”, Proun Gallery, Moscow

2009

History, Memory and Identity, Contemporary Photography from the Eastern Europe, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena

“Kandinsky Prize finalists 2009”, Central House of Artist, Moscow, Russia

Wonder World. Expecting a restless future / curated by Stefano Pezzato, 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art / Special project

Multivocal Histories / curated by Bas Vroege, Noorderlicht Photofestival 2009, Groningen, NL

2008

Presumed Innocence – Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Museum And Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA

The Power Of Water, The State Russian Museum, St.-Petersburg

einfach so…, Kunstraum Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf

2007

From Russia With Love – Contemporary Russian Photography and Video Art, Kunsthaus Meran, Meran, Italy

Reality Crossings – 2 Fotofestival, Mannheim_Ludwigshafen_Heidelberg, Germany

The Poetry Of Water In Russian Art, Palais Lumière, Evian, France

Work // IPRN Research Network, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Finland, curated by Kimo Lehtonen

Inszenierte Dokumente, Grafik-Museum Foundation Schreiner, Bad Steben, Germany

Photography and Video Art from Russia, Galerie J.J. Heckenhauer, Berlin

2006

Nouvelles Images Gallery, Den Haag, MK Gallery, Rotterdam

2005

No Comment, 1st International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Moscow

Zwischenraum, Stadtmuseum Hofheim am Taunus, Hofheim a. T., Germany

Inward Outward, FLACC, Genk, Belgium

Bezhin Meadow, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami

2004

Passage l’Europe, Musee d’Art Moderne, St. Etienne, France

The Photographic Portrait, Forum für Fotografie, Cologne

Identification, 4th International Photography Biennale in Moscow

1997

Women Photographers, Smolensk, Russia

1996

New Alphabet, 4th International Photography Biennale in Moscow

CURATORIAL ACTIVITIES:

2017

“bilder fragen”, H2-Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst im Glaspalast, Augsburg, Germany / curated by Thomas Elsen, Anastasia Khoroshilova, Gustavo Sagorsky

2013

Catalogue essay: Anastasia Khoroshilova, “Das Bild eines Reiches ein Reich der Bilder” in “Bilder eines Reiches das Leben im vorrevolutionären Russland”, Boris Groys/Peter Weibel (Hg), ZKM Karlsruhe, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2013

2009

“Moscow-St.Petersburg” – Russian photography from mid-XIX-early XX century from Moscow private collections, ROSPHOTO The State Centre of Photography of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg / curated by Anastasia Khoroshilova

Catalogue essay: A.Khoroshilova “The trace of St.Petersburg in photographs from Moscow private collections, 1839-1917” in “Moscow-St.Petersburg / Russian photography from mid-XIX-early XX century”, ROSPHOTO-Publishing, St.-Petersburg, 2009

2006

“Bilder eines Reiches”, life in pre-revolutionary Russia / curatorial assistance for Prof. Dr. Boris Groys, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany

2002

“Stanovis!”(“Line up!”)

Body Representation in thr soviet photography of the 20-30s, Moscow House of Photography / curated by Anastasia Khoroshilova

COLLECTIONS:

Collection Bank Austria, Vienna

Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci Prato, Italien

Collection Citigroup Private Bank, New York

Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena

Kunsthalle Lingen

Lowe Art Museum, Florida, USA