Hardcover w/ Embossing: 252 Pages

Format: 23 x 32,5 cm
Edition: 1st Edition, Original Edition
Languages: German, English, Russian
Publication Date: October 15th 2020
Female Authors: Katerina Belkina, Ani Menua, Anne Avramut
Design: Helena Melikov
Paper: FSC Mix Certified
Print: Sustainable, Vegan & Climate Neutral
Made & Printed in Germany
ISBN 978-3-94817-405-7
Shipping: Worldwide

Über das Buch

,My Work Is My Personal Theatre'

Fotografie verschmilzt mit Malerei - Die russische Künstlerin Katerina Belkina verbindet in ihren Werken auf einzigartige Weise Darstellungsformen der bildenden Kunst mit digitaler Bildbearbeitung. Ein Bildband mit kunsthistorischem Diskurs.  

Im Mittelpunkt ihrer Werke steht stets der Mensch, zumeist die Frau. Dabei nimmt Belkina selbst eine dreifache Rollenbesetzung ein: Sie ist Motiv, Regisseurin und bildende Künstlerin zugleich. Basierend auf feministischen Grundsätzen zeigt die russische Künstlerin das alltägliche Leben aus einer weiblichen Perspektive, wobei die Frau nicht als Objekt dargestellt wird, sondern vor allem Energie ist. In ihrer Bildserie „Not a Man's World" präsentiert sie sich selbstbewusst Pfeife rauchend und mit erhobenem Zeigefinger. Belkina möchte jedoch nicht anprangern, sondern sucht vielmehr Antworten auf die Frage: Wer ist sie als Frau, Künstlerin, Mutter oder als Mitglied einer Gesellschaft?

Über die Künstlerin

Katerina Belkina

Katerina Belkina (*1974) wuchs in Samara im südöstlichen Teil des europäischen Russlands mit ihrer Mutter, einer bildenden Künstlerin, in einer kreativen Atmosphäre auf. Sie studierte an der Petrow-Wodkin-Kunstakademie Malerei und bei Michael Musorin Fotografie. Es folgten Ausstellungen in Moskau und Paris. Katerina Belkina war 2007 für den prestigeträchtigen Kandinsky Preis in Moskau nominiert, gewann 2015 den internationalen Lucas-Cranach-Preis und 2016 den prestigeträchtigen Hasselblad Masters' Competition. Derzeit lebt und arbeitet sie in Werder (Havel).

About the Artist

Early on, Katerina Belkina (*1974) knew about her exceptional talent to see the world through different eyes. Born in Samara in the southeast of European Russia, she was brought up in a creative atmosphere by her mother, a visual artist. Her education at the Art Academy and the Michael Musorin School of Photography in Samara gave her the tools to visualize her ideas. Exhibitions of her sublime, mystic self-portraits ensued in Moscow and Paris. Katerina Belkina was nominated for the prestigious Kandinsky Prize (comparable to the British Turner Prize) in Moscow in 2007. She won the International Lucas-Cranach-Prize in 2015 and the prestigious Hasselblad Masters Award in 2016. Currently she lives and works in Werder (Havel).

Photography merges with painting - in her work, the Russian artist Katerina Belkina uniquely combines traditional painting techniques with digital image processing. An illustrated book, a survey of her work, will be released by SHIFT BOOKS (formerly: KOCMOC - Publishing Space) in October of 2020.

When viewing Katerina Belkina's paintings, you cannot discern what medium you are looking at - photography or painting.  Using a digital brush, the Russian artist lends her photographic images a weightless and dreamlike atmosphere that elevates the image to an expanded, altered reality. In doing so, she creates a unique genre of her own. The trilingual (German, English, Russian) illustrated book - "Katerina Belkina - My Work Is My Personal Theatre", which is due to be released on October 15th by SHIFT BOOKS, presents for the first time the artist's work in an art-historical context.

People - primarily women - have always been the centre of Belkina's work, where she casts herself simultaneously as the subject, the director of the mise-en-scène, and the artist. Led by feminist principles, she shows everyday life from a female perspective, whereby she portrays the woman as an object but, above all, as energy. In her series "Not a Man's World", she presents herself smoking a pipe and raising her index finger with self-confidence. Belkina, however, does not want to denounce, but instead seeks answers to the question: who is she as a woman, an artist, a mother, or a member of society?

Katerina Belkina grew up with her mother, also an artist, in the European south-east of Russia. During this period, she adopted the visual vocabularies of the Renaissance and socialist realism. They became the basis of her pictorial language, typical for which are artificially exaggerated photorealistic images that draw close associations with hyperrealism. In addition to essays on Belkina's work, the book will include an interview with the artist, in which she talks about her work and her creative practices.

About the publisher 

SHIFT BOOKS has been designing and publishing art books, exhibition catalogues, artist books, and magazines as print and digital media since 2018. The still young Berlin-based publishing house operates according to the highest quality and environmental standards in cooperation with sustainability-oriented printing houses in Germany. SHIFT BOOKS focuses on promoting artists from Eastern Europe. The team aims to discover Eastern-European artists and offer them visibility in the West.