Igor Sacharow-Ross

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.[1] 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 interface 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.

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).

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  Inner Observatory, 1995, Installation view, Haus der Kunst, Munich
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  Trauma Natalis, 2005, spatial collage, National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow
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  Lost Connection, 2006, Museum of Modern Art, Passau
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  Syntopia, 2007, spatial collage, partial view, Kunstmuseum Bonn
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  Not Filtered, 2009, spatial collage, Kunstraum Dornbirn

• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Schilderwerken. Edited by Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Text by Jaak Brouwers. Leuven 1979.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Radierungen und Objekte. Edited by Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft. Text by Peter Stepan. Nuremberg 1985.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Kraftzellen. Edited by M·A Munich. Text by Boris Groys. Munich 1986.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Yagya. Edited by Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt Munich M A. Text by Igor Sacharow-Ross, Jean Baudrillard, Boris Groys, Agrippa von Nettersheim, Blaise Pascal, Nicolai Fiodorov. Munich 1987.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Zwischenfelder. Edited by Galerie Schüppenhauer, Cologne and Dany Keller Galerie, Munich. Text by Peter Frank. Schuffelen, Pulheim 1988.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Kraftzellen II. Edited by Kunstverein Karlsruhe, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Kunsthalle Innsbruck. Text by Peter Frank, Boris Groys, Udo Kittelmann, Joseph Beuys. Schuffelen, Pulheim 1989.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Tunnel. Edited by Goethe-Institut Madrid. Text by Michael Marschall von Bieberstein, Edith Decker. Madrid 1990.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Apotropikon. Räume – Felder – Handlungen. Edited by Galerie Schüppenhauer. Text by Boris Groys, Igor Sacharow-Ross, Peter Stepan. Cologne – Munich 1991.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Tabula Rotunda. Edited by Städtische Galerie im Museum Folkwang. Text by Jochen Hörisch, Hermann Krings, Petra Giloy-Hirtz. Essen 1992.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross. Edited by Evelyn Weiss. Text by Leonid Baschanow, Alexander Borovsky, Jewgenja Petrowa, Peter Stepan, Ludwig Weimer. Prestel, Munich–Berlin–London–New York 1993. ISBN 978-3791312484
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Arbeitsplatz. Edited by Kunstverein Rosenheim. Text by Annelie Pohlen, Petra Giloy-Hirtz. Rosenheim 1994.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross. Feuer und Fest / Fire and Festival. Edited by Petra Giloy-Hirtz. Text by Vladimir Sorokin, Fasil Iskander, Jewgeni Popow, Viktor Kriwulin, Igor P. Smirnov, Boris Groys, Petra Giloy-Hirtz. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 1994. ISBN 978-3893222735
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Reanimation. Edited by Evelyne-Dorothée Allemand. Text by Engelbert Broich, André Comte-Sponville, Hubertus Gaßner, Ernst Pöppel, Jürgen Raap, Eva Ruhnau, Eberhard Stengel. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 1997. ISBN 978-3893223497
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Ausschnitt. Edited by Ralf-Michael Seele. Text by Ralf-Michael Seele, Rüdiger Dahlke, Dietmar Schaberg, Eberhard Stengel. Städtische Galerie ADA Meiningen, Meiningen 1997. ISBN 3-930675-13-7
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Die Zelle, die Zeit, das Licht. Edited by Bayerische Landesbank International S. A. Text by Evelyn Weiss. Luxembourg 1998.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Wartehalle. Edited by Institut Pro Arte St. Petersburg. Text by Igor P. Smirnov, Arkadij Dragomoschtchenko, Ernst Pöppel, Alexander Skidan, Oleg Kireev, Denis Bednik, Alain Badiou, Andrej Bitov, Nadeschda Grigorjeva, Sergej Savjalov, Pavel Klubkov, Dimitrij Golinko-Volfson, Evgenij Maisel, Alexandr Sekratzkij. Levscha, St. Petersburg 2001.
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: SAPIENS / SAPIENS. Edited by Syntopie Ort. Text by Nils Röller, Wladimir Koschaew, Ernst Pöppel, Jan Halcrow, Oleg Kireev, Elisabeth Sikiaridi, Franz Vogelaar, Gabriele Beßler, Josef Riedmiller, Petra Schröck, Jürgen Raap, Jürgen Kisters, Engelbert Broich, Janina Wegner-Keres, Klaus Heid, Thomas Polednitschek, Dieter Buchhart, Florian Falkenstein, Eberhard Stengel, Igor Sacharow-Ross. Salon, Cologne 2002. ISBN 978-3897701557
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Refugium. Edited by Syntopielabor Cologne. Text by Ernst Pöppel, Kasper König, Hans Thomas, Peter Busmann, Ian Halcrow, Cornelia Köster, Valerij Sautschuk, Nadescha Grigorjeva, Igor P. Smirnov, Lilija Brusilowskaja, Igor Kondakov, Elena Plehanowa, Dimitry Bulatov, Oleg Kireev, Schamma Schachadat, Andrey Demitchev, Michael Berg. AHO, Ischevsk 2003. ISBN 5-93972-271-7
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Abgebrochene Verbindung. Edited by Dieter Buchhart, Hans-Peter Wipplinger. Text by Edith Rabenstein, Dieter Buchhart, Igor Sacharow-Ross, Thomas Zaunschirm, Sabine Schütz, Ernst Pöppel, Eva Ruhnau, Durs Grünbein, Vladimir Sorokin, Alexander Borovsky, Anna Karina Hofbauer. Verlag für moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 2006. ISBN 978-3939738008
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Syntopia. Edited by Andrea Niehaus and Dieter Ronte. Text by Andrea Niehaus, Dieter Ronte, Susanne Witzgall, Irene Kleinschmidt-Altpeter, Peter Ulrich Hein, Klaus-Peter Speidel, Christoph-Friedrich von Braun, Robert Huber, Ernst Pöppel. Wienand, Cologne 2007. ISBN 978-3879099443
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Geflechte. Edited by garnitur / Christina Schönborn, Martin Kammerlander (Vienna). Text by Klaus Speidel, Ulrich Stimming, Reinhard Putz, Ernst Pöppel, Alexander Borovsky, Tobias Loemke. Salon, Cologne 2008. ISBN 978-3897702882
• Igor Sacharow-Ross: Nicht gefiltert. Edited by Hans Dünser. Text by Anna Karina Hofbauer, Ernst Pöppel. Verlag für moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 2009. ISBN 978-3-941185-83-8

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