Sergey Sapozhnikov was born in Rostov-sul-Don, Russia in 1984, and lives and works in a post-industrial region where the remains of dilapidated infrastructures and the natural landscape form a whole. He creates large, temporary installations that are highly evocative. Before destroying these precarious constructions, the artist photographs them to capture their atmosphere. Sapozhnikov’s works are characterised by an exuberant visual vocabulary that combines nature, architecture, and landscape. The artist calls his photos ‘still lifes’, and for his sets he uses materials like inflatable elements to symbolise flowers and fruit, which decay quickly and of leave behind nothing but an image.
A Wonderful Day (2018)
Mixed media
The installation is composed of a series of small Polaroids arranged on a display table at Palazzo Butera, erected among the ruins of Palazzo Costantino, set in the landscape of the Russian countryside, as well as a selection of larger photographic prints. The artist often works with known and recognisable spaces, showing them from unusual and unexpected perspectives. For this series of new images, Sapozhnikov ‘transported’ the interiors of the decaying noble palace located in Palermo so as to photograph them in his birthplace, Rostov-on-Don, creating works that set themselves apart for their exuberant visual vocabulary combining nature, architecture, and landscape.