Knjigarna Behemot

There is something beautifully stalkerian about the work of Anton Ginzburg, a New York based photographer from St. Petersburg, currently exhibiting at the Palazzo Bollani in Venice as part of the 54th Venice Art Biennale his newest series At the Back of the North Wind.

"Hyperborea" series, (The White Sea)

In developing this project, Ginzburg embarked on a three-part journey, starting in the American North West (Astoria, Oregon), continuing to St. Petersburg and then to the White Sea, the site of the Soviet Gulag prison camps.

"Hyperborea" series, (North West, Oregon)

Something immeasurably sad, immeasurably beautiful. A sense of infinitesmal possibility? Stalker said:

Let them believe. And let them have a laugh at their passions. Because what they call passion actually is not some emotional energy, but just the friction between their souls and the outside world. And most important, let them believe in themselves. Let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it’s tender and pliant. But when it’s dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being.

"Hyperborea" series, (The White Sea)

And what other method is there? To art, and to life?

The philosophy of Tarkovsky’s Stalker visualised via Anton Ginzburg’s photography will be open to the public in Palazzo Bollani to November 27.