Curator: Yuri Avvakumov

Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents SUSPENSE, solo show by Timofei Parschikov. This exhibition is the result of Parschikov’s visual studies in photography, video shooting and direction. The display unites works done during the last three years in Russian and European cities.

In cinema, suspense means unresolved conflict, unfinished situation, an intense feeling of vague and inexplicable anxiety. This method appeared in post-war years and almost instantly received a new interpretation within the context of the second-wave European existentialism. It was the best means to express the unconscious grief that penetrated the post-war world. However, while in movies this anxiety is controlled by the director, in the real life this grief turned out to be totally incontrollable. Being a very human characteristic, it is nowadays increased and nourished by the world of media that mainly focus on catastrophes. This global space has merged inner boundaries and, at the same time, disengages everything: the anxiety turns into isolation and vulnerability of an individual facing the obscurity.

The photographer is doomed to cross the space — either physically or with his eyes only — and in this sense he is even more vulnerable as a traveler. The suspense may suddenly reach him in a deserted Istanbul quay or in a crowded Naples square. The photography becomes his shield that protects him of stupefaction and reconciles him with the uncertainty. Parschikov tries to fix the confusion that arises on the brink of collapse of fragile inner balance. The photographer’s personal aesthetic feeling discloses the nerve of the situation and stresses its incompleteness.

Often Parschikov reveals the anxiety in the twilight drama of toxically colorful lighting, where the unseen or barely seen, or left beyond the frame, becomes as important as the things in focus. The power of balancing static and dynamic forms in photography comes from Parschikov’s extensive knowledge of cinema. The author uses delicate hues, shadows and contrasts, trying to approach his visual predecessor — the ‘noir’ cinema of the 40s and the ‘neo-noir’ of the 70s.

To organize the display, Timofei Parschikov chose the image of a cinema hall that is very important for him. The works are hung in a dark space, while the light-boxes that turn on and off look like discrete and deconstructed screens. The uneasy glare of objects in the dark rooms is supported by the soundtrack: the background noise, which usually stays unnoticed, comes forward in the moment of anxiety and fills the whole scope of perception.

In Timofei Parschikov’s work, suspense penetrates into the landscape, the city space and even the characters dwelling there.

Partners of the project

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