Haralampi G. Oroschakoff (*1955) – Different Worlds
5. 5. – 29. 6. 2014
prices of paintings available upon request in the MIRO Gallery
THE CATALOGUE FROM THIS EXHIBITION IS AVAILABLE HERE
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Different Worlds (5), 2011 |
Different Worlds (14), 2011 |
Different Worlds (a), 2007 |
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Different Worlds (13), 2011 |
Different Worlds (26), 2013 |
Different Worlds (25), 2013 |
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Different Worlds (20), 2013 |
Different Worlds (17), 2013 Oil and pigments on canvas 251 x 200,5 cm |
Different Worlds (7), 2007 |
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Different Worlds (1), 2006 |
Argo 3, 2012 |
“The homeless exile is destined to be a permanent traveller. His picture compositions invite one to take imaginary trips, the borders of which extend beyond the otherwise known Western European-orientated art landscape. Bound to a “practical need for sensible illustrations”, he is proving to be an ethnographer of the world of colours and faces … and with discreet quotes from cards he indicates that his motives are actually undefined by place … with painted quotes, Oroschakoff diverts the view away from the mythical misty world of the Orient to the old wounds of territorial states dependent on superpower political dictatorships, with their smouldering national and tribal differences. …”
Marie-Louise von Plessen (Déjà vu im Diesseits – The Artist as Cartographer)
The entire oeuvre of this Austrian painter, illustrator and writer (born in Sofia in 1955, he grew up in Vienna) was initially especially distinctive for how it handled the icon and Byzantine world, which represented a break with standard practice on the art market at the time. In as early as 1984, Oroschakoff’s organisation and archiving of the Eastern and Western worlds shifted the “invisible artistic border” between Latin and Orthodox civilizations in the public awareness; it expanded the idea of “art” to include history and international politics. His interest in political history made him a renowned expert on East-West relations. He was an active participant in all important political disputes, including Petersburg Dialogue (2003) and the German-Russian Forum; since 2011 he has regularly participated in “Fireside Chats” (Kamingespräche) at the Russian embassy in Berlin. Oroschakoff is one of the founders (together with Curtis Briggs, Florian Langenscheidt and Enoch zu Guttenberg) of “artists for nature” and is a member of Casinogesellschaft and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
His complete oeuvre has been presented at over one hundred exhibitions in Europe, Russia and the Americas. Initially his museum installations stirred controversy (“Cage – Free Space”, mumok – Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna); he later exhibited with the Nouveu-Bohème group (Julian Schnabel, Jiří Georg Dokoupil and others) and participated in the Dokumentas biennial. Today his work is represented in many public collections, including Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna, Municipal Gallery in Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Russian State Museum in St Petersburg, Berlinische Galerie, Mamco Geneva and many well-known private collections, such as the Dürckheim Collection and Rosenkranz Foundation collection.
Oroschakoff has presented his book The Battenberg Affair (Die Battenberg-Affäre, Berlin Verlag, 2007) at over 25 readings and literary festivals. Today this book is a classic of European history. “The common theme in Oroschakoff’s work is the “Oriental question”: the battle between nationalism and Pan-Slavism, liberals and grand Russians, Ottoman exhaustion and Balkan enthusiasm, which has played out in a series of bloody episodes since 1989. Whoever really wants to understand the Balkan maze of recent years should immerse themselves into this great historical story” (Der Spiegel, 2008). The sheer quantity of his publish books has reinforced his position in the literary world (Kräftemessen/Measuring Strength, 1995; Instant Archaeology, 1996; Moskau-Berlin-Stereogramme, 2001; Internationales Literaturfestival, 2001).
The Russian festival “Measuring Strength” (Kräftemessen) in Munich, which Oroschakoff conceived and curated in 1995, is important for both cities that were centres for his life – Berlin and Munich. Here is where three generations of artists and theoreticians first met. In 2003 Haralampi donated his “Moskauer Konzeptualismus” collection (together with Vadim Zakharov) to the Museum of Prints and Drawings in Berlin.
A father of four from an old Russian family, he lives and works in Berlin, Vienna and on the Côte d’Azur.
…And so we will be forced to change our standard method of interpretation: We must figure out the culture the artist works with – based on the relative similarity of their way of working with international artistic habits. Then our perception will be culturally “correct” and teach us the relativity of pictures of mass culture, a theme that continues to appear in the work of Haralampi Oroschakoff.
Boris Groys, Mystical Correct