Tatiana Yulyevna Liberman
Tatiana Yulyevna Liberman (born August 26, 1964, Moscow) is a Russian artist and photographer.
She was born, lives, and works in Moscow. She graduated from the Photography Department of the Moscow Polytechnic College (1985) and the Institute of Journalism Mastery (1987). In 1987, she participated in the "First Exhibition of Artistic Photography" at the MSU Palace of Culture (organized by Alexander Lapin). In 1990, she was a co-curator and participant in the Norwegian-Soviet photo project "Women Photographers: Meeting on the Island of Spitsbergen." Since 1993, she has been a member of the Union of Photo Artists of Russia. From 1996 to 1998, she was a Presidential Fellow for Young Cultural Workers of the Russian Federation. She is a laureate of the "Silver Wreath" competition of MMKAI and the Moscow House of Photography (2007).
She teaches at the Alexander Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia in Moscow. Tatiana Liberman is known for her staged photography, focusing on the idea that every photograph is a projection of the photographer’s vision, even in reportage.
Personal life: Her first husband was Vladimir Sigachyov, musician and one of the founders of the band "DDT". Her second husband is photographer Igor Mukhin, with whom she has two children: daughter Maria (born 1991) and son Maxim (born 2000).
Works in collections
Ministry of Culture RF, Moscow
Museum of the History and Reconstruction of Moscow, Moscow
Moscow Museum of Photographic Collections, Moscow
Goethe-Institut, Moscow
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tampa, USA
Mendi Kaszirer Foundation, Antwerp, Belgium
P.Zimmer, Stuttgart, Germany
Ur.Herbrand, Cologne, Germany
A.Vowinckel, Karlsruhe, Germany
E.Berhard Stephani, Hamburg, Germany
R.Bartoleit, Germany
Exhibitions and auctions
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1993 Vadim Gippenreiter and Tanya Liberman. TeatRo / Art&Design Center, Moscow
1994 "Projection". XL Gallery, Moscow
1995 "Reconstruction". Goethe-Institut, Moscow
"Window to Europe". International festival KUKART, Reserve Palace, Tsarskoe Selo
"My Journal for the Few" (with G. Ustiyan). XL Gallery, Moscow
"Ex-position". Club "Three Monkeys", Moscow
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1987 Student Club MSU, Moscow
1990 "For Cultural Leisure". "Kashirka", Moscow
1991 "Photo Manifesto. Photography of Perestroika". Baltimore; Southampton, USA
"Svalbard - Fotografiske Fragmenter". Kristiansand, Norway
1992 "ART Frankfurt". Frankfurt, Germany
1993 "ART ’24". Basel, Switzerland
"Sistine Chapel". TeatRo / Art&Design Center, Moscow
"Young Talents". Photocenter, Moscow
"ART Hamburg - Eastern European Art". Galerie Kicken, Hamburg, Germany
1994 "Art of Contemporary Photography – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus". Central House of Artists, Moscow
Annual Exhibition of Women's Photography. Russian Union of Photographers. Ryazan City Museum, Ryazan
"Chicago International Art Expo". XL Gallery. Navy Pier, Chicago, USA
"Surface of Meaning. Layering of Covers". Central House of Artists, Moscow
"II Moscow Photography Festival". Gallery at Solyanka, Moscow
1994-95 "Neue Fotokunst aus Russland". Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; Galerie im Karmelitenkloster, Frankfurt am Main; Kunsthalle Faust, Hannover; Museum Volk und Wirtschaft, Dusseldorf; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Hertener Fototage, Herten, Germany
1995 "Russian Photography". Museum of Contemporary Art, Tampa, USA
"Kyiv Art Meeting". XL Gallery. Ukrainian House Center, Kyiv, Ukraine
"Werkstatt Moskau" (Contemporary Russian Photo Art). Akademie der Kunste im Marstall, Berlin, Germany
"Night over Asia". The Swedish Exhibition Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
"Neue Fotokunst aus Russland". Kulturhaus Osterfeld, Pforzheim, Germany
Critic
Parts are greater than the whole. The number of details defies counting. If one takes the parts in total and the world as a particular, one may notice a certain rule—the details are always more impressive than what they constitute. They are closer and more concrete.
Lying on the ground in the holiday season, anyone can feel the colossal cosmic body beneath them. But to a sunbather, it’s probably not the same as to a cosmonaut. More likely, they'd conclude the earth is a stubbly plain going off to infinity. The farther we get from an object, the more its appearance changes. Perhaps from the edge of our galaxy, the Earth looks like a glowing needle's eye. And if we go even further, even this phantom will disappear.
Tatiana Liberman's works, whose exhibition opened at XL Gallery, explore the existence of the object in motion—from particular to general. In this process, shadow serves as a braking force necessary for detailed examination. The female torso, armless and headless—as it was seen by classicist Europeans excavating ancient ruins—is the subject of detailed study here. Antiquity will always seem to us synonymous with the fragmentary. We view broken statues, imagining that they were once whole. But the charm of the past lies in the fact that it can only be seen by the fragmented consciousness of a schizophrenic.
In Liberman’s work, shadow plays an important, disorienting role. The grid through which light falls onto the loose surface exists only in the imagination of the observer. It is a call of the void, scenery for the nonexistent. Where do these strange photographed scenes happen? Only in the artist's mind, which provokes the environment to create phantoms? Or, perhaps in the world of variation, akin to the mind of God, or a Supercatalog, where the eternal process known as "creation of torsos" takes place. Armless, legless, headless ancient bodies spin in semi-darkness, weightless and somewhat like Christmas ornaments.
A headless Nike is more impressive than if she were whole. Perhaps otherwise, we might even feel disgust. At the very least, antiquity without destruction would seem unthinkable today. Christian barbarians contributed to art with their unbridled vandalism, giving us a whole galaxy of ancient masterpieces. The charm of the fragmentary permeates Piranesi’s visionary dreams. And how can one not recall the destructive creativity of the Bolsheviks, who gave the world not only the ruins of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior but also the wonderfully aesthetic park sculpture groups of Stalinist empire style, gracefully perishing before our eyes.
Liberman’s experiments are better viewed from another angle: these are experiments on people. The living naked body in art embodies the absence of time, the conventionality of space, and the strangeness of Being. "Enough of black," said Degas. "Enough of white," we might answer. But between black and white are torsos—only imprints of light on the film’s surface.
O. Shishkin. "The Body as Reflection". - Segodnya, 1994, November 25
Works 10
