FACELESS and MYSTERIA (Belarus, 1989-1992)
The snapshots that Igor Savchenko draws upon were made in the 1930s, ’40’s and ’50s. By scratching or bleaching them and removing elements from them and adding others to them, Savchenko gives them new meaning. Often only the outlines of a person and his/her relations to others and the surroundings remain. Glances and gestures become mysterious codes. The viewer is carried back to the moment at which the photograph was made, as if listening to an old gramophone record on which each cough in the auditorium can be heard. In the Western world Savchenko’s work is related to the destruction of the individual by the Soviet regime. In extreme cases Soviet citizens burned their family albums on their own initiative. With images from the series FACELESS and MYSTERIA Savchenko pauses to honour the fact that personal memories do not yield themselves to collectivisation.
