Translated material
Day on wrapping paper
Exhibition by Sergei Golovach at the Fine Art gallery
The story of the Pierre and Gilles exhibition received its unexpected continuation in Moscow. At the opening day of the famous duo at the Big Manege, photographer Sergei Golovach approached me and asked me to pay attention to Pierre and Gilles’ 1999 work “The Hole”: an Asian-looking sitter poses as a macho cowboy in some stylishly shabby basement. Seven years later, in 2006, this guy Leo became the hero of Golovach’s photo series. The series, presented recently as part of the Second Moscow Biennale at the Fine Art gallery, is called “+”. The transformation of the camp theme by the Russian mentality is curious. Instead of euphoric (or, according to Roland Barthes, “euphemistic”, varnishing reality, conjuring pain and suffering) world visualization systems, Sergei Golovach chose the code of a psychological, problematic film novel, black and white drama, which is more understandable to Russians. The fact is that the model of Pierre and Gilles, the art director of Parisian clubs, Leo has long been infected with HIV. His family, mother and sister know about this, his friend Francois knows about it. Everyone loves Leo, everyone accepts him as he is, and everyone lives with the constant fear of the tragedy of saying goodbye.Golovach chose his signature horizontal narrow format of photographs and built a series of 48 paintings - one day of love under the “+” sign, the sign of HIV infection. Filming took place in Normandy, in Leo's parental home. Leo with his family, Leo with Francois - at home, in the park, on the railway tracks, a lot of subtly staged romantic mise-en-scène, beautiful tender touches of loving beings to each other and to our emotions. You really have compassion, you really learn patience and tolerance. It is surprising that the landscapes chosen are those where people in psychological novels of the 19th century usually give vent to their passions: swamps, thickets, windbreaks, broken roads, lead clouds - in general, not Vrubel at all, rather Savrasov and Kramskoy. The black and white photographs themselves are rolled onto sheets of gray, nondescript wrapping paper. The story is packaged in a completely Russian way. Still, the genetic memory of Russians is unique: camp, of course, is good, but Dostoevsky and the Wanderers are better!