Igor Sacharow-Ross

Igor Sacharow-Ross

Igor Sacharow-Ross (born 1947 in Khabarovsk) is a German-Russian visual artist who works in Cologne and Munich. He is considered a pioneer in the realm of interdisciplinary art.

Life and Work

Igor Sacharow-Ross was born in the Russian Far East and, as a member of the nonconformist art scene, was subject to political persecution in the 1970s. He staged the first actions and performances in the former USSR in 1975, ultimately leading to his deportation in 1978. His early engagement with the concept of nature was prompted by his growing up in the Siberian taiga. He conceives of nature as a field of both destructive and beneficent primeval forces. In the 1980s, Sacharow-Ross began working with molecular structures, such as cancer cells and leaf forms. The artist already at that point sought to combine natural science with considerations from the humanities.The projects of the 1980s, mediators between art and science, are research projects, which unfold in space installations. Since the nineties his project expanded constantly in terms of space as well as content. Against the background of the syntopic thought (defined by Ernst Pöppel) he develops artistic forms of expression for an intermedia communication on the inferface of aesthetic and common thinking and acting. Evolving from this the »Raumcollage« (spatial collage) originated as a form in which the artist takes great pains to provoke an interaction between the artistic space and the surroundings.

Style

The oeuvre of Igor Sacharow-Ross, grown over the last 40 years, defies common classifications. In a retrospective portrayal, one discovers the specific quality of his work, having never committed himself to a certain style or medium. Drawings, photographs, paintings, sculpture as well as print, videos, installations and resonance bodies are thus equally used by him and condensed in spatial collages. However, with all divergency of styles and means there are constant aspects in the artistic work. In general it is about determining the coordinates of humanity, or how Igor Sacharow-Ross himself calls it: it is about developing »batteries of empathy«. In a great number of experimental series spectators are confronted with questions like »Who are we as human beings actually? On which lines of life are we situated?«

For decades he is continuously considering the open wounds of the history that is called Europe: the day-to-day violence and torture, the misery of refugees, of the banished and the expelled as well as the destruction of the environment. All these historical motions and flight movements are condensed and symbolically transformed in his work. The effort to trigger »processes of reconstruction in man’s memory« is an essential momentum of his occupation with the entanglements of the all-European history. A further constant quality of his artistic work is the concept of syntopia, that aims at a participation of the audience. Igor Sacharow-Ross pursues the interdisclipinary connection of the arts and sciences on the one hand and of society and politics on the other hand by means of exhibitions and events, which always have the spectators as social agents in their center. They are the ones to establish new inter-connections, for example during the project »Sapiens/Sapiens« (Palais de Nations, Geneva and Simultanhalle of Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2000ff.) as well as with the Syntopia-sculpture »Der Zaun« (The fence) in the context of the Bundesgartenschau, Potsdam (2001). Existential experiences of being-in-danger and pain are always inscribed into these works of art, as for example in the exhibition of »Trauma Natalis« in the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow (2005).

Exhibitions (Selection)

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Publications

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