Memories of the future


  • Photographer
    Pavel Matveyev
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention

Technical Information: All images are printed in size 140 by 100 cm, laminated and mounted to aluminium.

Story

This work started with questions about nostalgia and then continued as an investigation into the notions of the gaze and the poetic image. Employing simple tool in the form of photographic evidence, this project also reflects on nostalgia’s emotional relatives such as melancholy and even boredom, “the root of all evil — the despairing refusal to be oneself,”* a taboo and a sign of failure in the Experience Economy driven society.

The work stems from personal reflections on the abandoned countryside estates (“usad’ba” in Russian) in the Moscow area, built primarily between the 18th and early 20th centuries. These either permanent or summer residences of wealthy Russian families were appropriated by the Soviet State after the 1917 revolution. They were often converted into hospitals or recreational facilities and many were eventually left to dilapidate.

*Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

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