My grandfather Igor, who unfortunately I did not have a chance to see, was in Chernobyl in 1986 as an engineer and liquidator of the accident. After receiving large doses of radiation, he died of blood cancer, leaving my grandmother Mila alone in a one-room apartment quartet, which was received as a reward for my grandfather’s work. My grandmother, however, had two close friends Valya and Ira, who worked together with Mila and Igor in the same RosAtom Ministry and who also connected their fate to tragedy. In Chernobyl, Valya worked for three months as a secretary, Ira went with her husband only for a few weeks. All three women in the result received the status of "Chernobyl Widows", irreparable health consequences, painful memories.
The accident at the Chernobyl NPP is a disease that has poisoned entire generations. The people who lived through all this horror, who took part in the liquidation, who saw everything in real life, have been forgotten and abandoned like blunders in history. All experienced memories have been incorporated into their way of life, into their typical one-room apartments. This work explores the intersection of present and past, the indistinguishable consequences of the catastrophe and the permanence of the place.
The installation is an image of a typical Khrushchev apartment in which Ira, Mila and Valya still live. Each heroine has her own room, which represents her perceptions of the past and today.
My grandfather Igor, who unfortunately I did not have a chance to see, was in Chernobyl in 1986 as an engineer and liquidator of the accident. After receiving large doses of radiation, he died of blood cancer, leaving my grandmother Mila alone in a one-room apartment quartet, which was received as a reward for my grandfather’s work. My grandmother, however, had two close friends Valya and Ira, who worked together with Mila and Igor in the same RosAtom Ministry and who also connected their fate to tragedy. In Chernobyl, Valya worked for three months as a secretary, Ira went with her husband only for a few weeks. All three women in the result received the status of "Chernobyl Widows", irreparable health consequences, painful memories.
The accident at the Chernobyl NPP is a disease that has poisoned entire generations. The people who lived through all this horror, who took part in the liquidation, who saw everything in real life, have been forgotten and abandoned like blunders in history. All experienced memories have been incorporated into their way of life, into their typical one-room apartments. This work explores the intersection of present and past, the indistinguishable consequences of the catastrophe and the permanence of the place.
The installation is an image of a typical Khrushchev apartment in which Ira, Mila and Valya still live. Each heroine has her own room, which represents her perceptions of the past and today.
Serafima Bresler - Contemporary Artist
Home and Memory
My artist practice is concentrated on exploring the domestic space, both mental and physical. I believe that the personal space, especially the house, is an environment in which there is a high concentration of images, thus it becomes a real mental event, sometimes revealing deep, archetypal levels of the psyche. The house resembles a tool for examining collective memory, the meaning of the family, and my function in it, as well as the feeling of fear and the fight against anxiety. These themes are traced as well as researched through dissecting images of the mundane. In psychology the notion of «image» is interpreted ambiguously: it can be «seen», stored in memory, reproduced, imagined, i.e. it reveals various mental depth. However, the image is always our own inner space created by the play of our imagination, i.e. it is always poetic.
I am interested in mundane objects whose function is simple and natural, but which are charged with multiple aspects of emotions and states and preserved valuable memories. Choosing one of the real objects and transforming its image through various artistic manipulations, it becomes the intermediate target, showing a piece of reality and my attitude, becoming a metaphor in my poetics. The poetics serve for me in a form of finished installation: a collection of images in a single space that interprets a certain story to the viewer.
I have vided experience of image-making. I open to commerce. If you wish to see my portfolio you are welcome to the "Commission Project" section.
Education
2021-present
2020-2021
2018-2020
2017-2018
Working Experience
2021-present
Tutor, "Portfolio Building Course" in BHSAD
2020
2020
2020
Technician in Printmaking Studio in BHSAD
ZIL Culture Centre
Series of photos and postcards
Documentary film "Slice of Lemon"
Poster, illustrations, presentation
2019
Street Child United
Worked as a tutor helping children to make zines, posters and organized the exhibition
2019
Fumetto Festival
As a volunteer, helping with organization
as a participant , seeling zine on the market
2019
Collaborated with fashion designer, HM
Video with elements of traditional animation
2019
Benzine Shop
illustrator
Exhibitions and Festivals
2022
Annual Exhibition
Group exhibition, HFBK
2021
Time of Things
Group exhibition, Winzavod
2021
Blazar: young contemporary art fair
Group exhibition, Museum of Moscow
2021
...and make yourself at home
Personal exhibition, Creative Diaspora
2021
"Ghostology of Post-Soviet Spaces"
Group exhibition, HSE ART GALLERY
2021
"Space inside us?"
Group exhibition, Peresvetov Pereulok Gallery
2020
"Chernovik"
Group exhibition, Union Printing on Winzavod
2020
Graduation Show
Group exhibition, BHSAD
2020
"CRUKRINOXES"
Group exhibition, Zdes Na Taganke
2020
"Parallels of Visual Perception"
Group exhibition, MOCX Gallery
2020
Zil Fest
Participant, ZIL Culture Center
2019
"Find a Friend"
Group exhibition, Gallery Electrozavod
2019
'Music School'
Personal exhibition, Ground Gallery
Publications
2020
ОБЪЕДИНЕНИЕ
Вернисаж
21th September 2020
ARTCONNECT magazine
Favorite Projects
17th August 2020
2020
2020
RBC Style
Generation Z interviews
May 2020
2020
LADIES DRAWING CLÜB
Issue #4 Russia
March 2020
2020
CultUrna
Online Gallery Russia
October 2020
2019
Average Art
Issue #31 UK
February 2019