House and Garden. Catalogue
A catalogue of Sergey Sapozhnikov’s eponymous exhibition—a combination of visual images, music, and theatre at
House & Garden documents the exhibition of the same name that was held at
The “House and Garden” project was first conceived by the artist and photographer Sergey Sapozhnikov in the spring of 2020, when the lockdown radically changed many people’s lives and saw the space they lived in become extremely hermetic, limited to just a few locations: apartment, threshold, public garden. The exhibition, which was presented in the format of a multimedia installation and organised itself around these three locations, consisted of a series of photographs taken by Sapozhnikov during the pandemic, video works by the theatre director Dmitriy Tsupko, music by the composer Alexey Khevelev, and a sports bicycle frame set like a sculpture on a pedestal.
All photos: Ruslan Shavaleev
As a large-scale spatial installation connecting works in different mediums, the project introduces the spectator to the artist’s reflections on art and creativity, dreams and reality through the prism of his own biography. House and Garden combines respect for the Romantic tradition and the artist’s emblematic irony, born out of a specific place and time: the post-Soviet city of Rostov in southern Russia and the pandemic pause of mid-2020 that froze the entire world.
The Russian version of the catalogue includes texts about the exhibition and Sergey Sapozhnikov’s artistic method (‘‘House and Garden, or The Adventures of Space’’ by Vladimir Levashov, ‘‘House and Garden: The Art of Total Installation” by Elena Yaichnikova, “In Search of a Lost Centre” by Sergey Fofanov). It also contains the libretto for Tsupko’s video work, a conversation between Sapozhnikov and Tsupko about their creative endeavours, photographs from the “House and Garden” project, a series of Sapozhnikov’s photographs of
Published at the end of the exhibition and developing the concept of a multi-issue magazine, the English version of the catalogue contains additional materials: photographs of the installation and of the exposition at
Another important element of the publishing programme for the “House and Garden” project is a limited edition vinyl record with waltzes by Alexey Khevelev. Seventeen musical works by Khevelev were created between 2020 and 2023 especially for the exhibition and recorded at the Vaults Centre for Artistic Production. The sleeve of the record was designed using Sergey Sapozhnikov’s photographs.
Francesco Bonami’s editorial introduction to the House & Garden catalogue
Life Style produces fantasies and creates desires, sometimes envy, if not disappointment. It is up to each of us to understand which Style we want to shape our Life. We either establish a model or we are followers. Social media today offers us all the opportunities to share our lives, to create fictions, theatre, beautiful lies and fake dreams. This is neither good nor bad, it is just the way humankind has chosen to live. This issue of House & Garden has been transformed into a social media account with the body of a magazine and the spirit of an artist. Sergey Sapozhnikov has chosen to share and bare Himself, his Life and his Style with us. He doesn’t fear judgment, in fact he seeks it. He wants to be neither model nor influencer, but nor does he want to be a follower. We have landed on Sapozhnikov’s planet, it may be small, but it is a planet where gravity is very strong and emotion very deep. A planet where nostalgia, melancholy, and the utter present are woven together. Relationships are intense on Sapozhnikov’s planet. House & Garden is a capsule, a makeshift spaceship on which you travel somewhere else, somewhere different, where your tastes, likes, and dislikes are suspended in an atmosphere created by Sapozhnikov to protect and isolate himself. What is Life Style? You are here to find out, to get an answer, to answer the question for yourself or to question the very idea of the question. Sapozhnikov will make you live his own answer, leading you back and forth between his House and his Garden during this traditional summer barbecue of ideas to which he has invited you. Have fun, live your Life… with or without Style.