Ukraine-Russia / Volleyball
1992 - Photography (Photography)
40 x 49.5 cm
Victor & Sergiy Kochetov
Ukraine-Russia / Volleyball by Viktor and Sergiy Kochetov features a concrete monument of women volleyball players before the railway station in the village of Vodyanoye, Kharkiv region. It’s a typical Soviet sculptural composition, thousands of which were casted in the USSR during this period. Many can still be found all over post-Soviet territories, leading to regular debates on the destiny of this visual heritage in Ukraine. Looking at the shabby state of the figures, it’s difficult to believe the Kochetovs’ image was taken just a year after the collapse of the USSR. The photograph is metaphorical for Ukrainian-Russian conflict, as the inscriptions “Kyiv” and “M” (hinting at Moscow) are highlighted on the jerseys of the volleyball players. In light of ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine, this scene can be perceived as an anti-monument to the system that exhausted all its inner relations. The sculptural composition becomes a testimony of the past, and the overpainting reveals the traces of time.
Viktor Kochetov became engaged in photography in 1968 and was also a professional photographer in film and photo laboratories. A significant part of his body of work was created together with his son Sergiy Kochetov. The Kochetovs’ art practice is based on cooperation and the mutual exchange of ideas. Their collaborative work shifts focus to scenes of bold, non-staged reality of the late-Soviet to post-Soviet periods. The artists are well-known for their extensive usage of hand-coloring black and white prints, which is rooted in the tradition of “luriki”—enlarged, retouched, and often tinted photographic portraits. Both Viktor and Sergiy Kochetov belong to the Kharkiv School of Photography. Since the mid-70s, the artists associated with this movement have treated photography in an unconventional way, developing personal aesthetics by defying the cultural taboos associated with representation. Their experiments created an iconography that went against the codes of social realism used to glorify the repressive Soviet state.
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