Place, Time...

Boris Mikhailov, Vita Mikhailova

Every generation has its war
God preserve you from living through times of war or change
Wisdom of the East

1941, three years old. I remember the bombing, the wail of sirens against a beautiful dark-blue sky.
For some reason people think one war falls to the lot of each generation. This blue series marks my second war.

The city had grown smaller with the loss of 250 thousand lives. Two thirds of the factories and mills stopped work.

The number of deaths exceeded the birth rate.
Burials in a polythene bag instead of a coffin.
Going to hospital meant taking your own bed linen, syringes and medicines.
Rats are the first to abandon a sinking shop, tiny creatures...
Everyone must know: the old will die first.
More than two years ago my son Ilyusha went to live in a foreign country.
Thirty people froze to death in the street. My friend held an exhibition to commemorate the fact.

Twenty-two degrees below zero. For three winter months no heating in apartments.
My boots were stolen on a train. The thief was a girl of 12.
Barefoot, I apprehended her as she crept out the carriage.
My relatives’ flat was broken into and robbed.
Sometimes it is scary to enter the dark entryway.
The bank is withholding my money.
Stench of urine.
One photographer I know sold his camera and opened a restaurant.
Another breeds dogs.
A third became a healer.

From 1994 to 1995 wages tripled. But for months nobody is paid.
Prices are catching up. Nearly the same as in New York, or Berlin.
More and more shops selling western goods.
There are buyers, too.
Maybe it’s not such a bad thing if there are less people here...
But there are more Chinese...
«Everything will turn out fine!» the announcer said today.

Boris Mikhailov

Born in Kharkov (former USSR) on 25th August 1938.
Lives and works in Berlin (Germany) and Kharkov (Ukraine).

1994 — Stipendium of ‘Light Work’, Artist-in-Residence program. Syracuse University, NY, USA;
1996 — Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation Award. Zurich, Switzerland;
Stipendium Landes-kulturzentrum. Salzau, Germany;
1996–1997 — DAAD, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Grant. Berlin, Germany;
1997 — Albert Renger-Patzsch Award. A support for European Photographic book projects by the Dietrich Oppenberg Foundation, Museum Folkwang. Essen, Germany;
Stipendium Landeshauptstadt Munchen. Kulturreferat, Germany;
1998–1999 — Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Collegium Helveticum, grand. Zurich, Switzerland;
2000 — Visiting lecturer. Department of Visual and Environmental Studies. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; ‘Le prix du Livre de Photographie des Recontres Internatio-nales de la Photographie d’Arles 2000’. Arles, France;
The Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. Goteborg, Sweden;
2001 — Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards for the best books on the photography. London;
The Citybank Private Bank Photography Prize. London;
2002–2003 — Guest docent. The Academy of Visual Art. Leipzig, Germany;
2003 — General Satellite corporation art prize foracontribution to the development of the contemporary Russian art. Moscow.

Solo exhibitions:
1995 — ‘Boris Mikhailov’. Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (catalogue);
‘After the Fall’. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA (catalogue);
1996 — ‘Boris Mikhailov’. Kunsthalle Zurich, Swiss (catalogue);
‘Boris Mikhailov. A Retrospective’. SCCA (Soros Center for Contemporary Arts), Kiev;
1998 — ‘Boris Mikhailov’. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (catalogue);
‘Boris Mikhailov. Les Miserables’ (About the World). Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany (catalogue);
1999 — ‘Boris Mikhailov’. Centre National de la Photographia, Paris;
‘Boris Mikhailov’. Museo Querini Stampalia, Venizia, Italy;
2000 — ‘Boris Mikhailov. 2000 Hasselblad Award Winner’. Hasselblad Center, Goteborg, Sweden;
‘Boris Mikhailov’. The Photography Gallery, London;
2001 — ‘Case History’. Saatchi Gallery, London;
‘Boris Mikhailov. Retrospective’. The Photographic Museum Helsinki;
2002 — ‘The Insulted and the Injured’. Pase/ MacGill Gallery, New York;
2003 — ‘Private Freuden, las-tende Lange-weile; offentlicher Zerfall, eine Retrospektive’. Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (catalogue);
2004 — ‘Boris Mikhailov. Photografies 60’s-2003’. Institute de Culturade Barcelona, Spain (catalogue);
‘Boris Mikhailov. Retrospective’. ICA Boston, USA (catalogue);
2005 -‘Boris Mikhailov’. FOAM, Photo Museum Amsterdam (catalogue, Fotomuseum Winterthur);
‘Look at Me, I Look at Water...’. Centre de la Photographie, Geneva, Switzerland;
2006 — ‘Case History’. Museum Historii Fotografii w Krakowie, Poland;
2007 — ‘Look at Me, I Look at Water...’. Sprengel Museum, Hanover;
‘Yesterday’. Kunst Meran, Italy
2008 — ‘Red, brown, yesterday...’. Museum of Actual Art, Аrt4.ru, Moscow
‘The Wedding’. Nicolo Sprovieri Galery, London
‘Historical Insinuations’, Multimedia Complex of Actual Arts, Contemporary Art Center Winzavod, Moscow

Collections:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York / MOMA, New-York / Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam / Frans Gals Museum / Sprengel Museum / Photo Museum, Helsinki / Kiasma Museum, Helsinki / Toyota City Museum / Victoria & Albert Museum, London / Saatchi Gallery, London / Berlin Gallery / Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland / Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich / National Museum, Osaka / Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and Chicago / Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco / Museum of Actual Art, Аrt4.ru, Moscow / PinchukArtCentre / Tretyakov Gallery / Moscow House of Photography Museum / Deutsche Bank / ВМW Bank and others