#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This season at the PolArt residence is being described as the fastest yet: less than two weeks have passed since the winners were announced. The first resident artist for this season will be Maria Plotnikova from Moscow.
Born and raised in Moscow, Maria spent several years living in South America. From 2001 to 2005, she studied at the philological faculty of Moscow Pedagogical State University, and in 2006, she graduated from the faculty of photojournalism at Moscow State University. Until 2010, she worked as a sports and reportage photographer for federal media, and she is now a freelance photographer.
Her experience includes covering major sporting events such as the Sochi Olympics (2014), Rio Olympics (2016), Pyeongchang Olympics (2018), and the FIFA World Cups in Brazil (2014) and Russia (2018). She has won numerous awards in both international and Russian competitions for documentary and street photography. Maria has collaborated with various Russian media outlets (including RIA Novosti, TASS, Kommersant, Lenta.ru and others) as well as Western publications (like Geo France, Der Spiegel, UNESCO Courier) as a documentary photographer. She teaches at the Photoplay School in Moscow and the Photografika Academy in St. Petersburg. Additionally, she was the curator of the street photography exhibition project Innervisions 2015 and authored a photo book about South America titled Terra Colorida.
In Norilsk, Maria Plotnikova plans to develop her project Magical Realism of the Arctic, exploring genres of documentary photography, street photography, and urban landscapes:
“Magical realism is an artistic approach where reality intertwines with an imagined world that its inhabitants believe in. While this genre originated in the works of South American writers, I firmly believe that Norilsk is an ideal setting for exploration through documentary photography within the framework of magical realism. You could say that Norilsk is the Russian Macondo, not in literary terms, but in its unique reality”.
“If you’re a photographer (and who isn’t these days?), you won’t miss the chance to meet Maria. The first event, an artist talk, will be held today, February 20, at 18.30 at the art residence. Admission is free”, invites the PolArt residency.
For additional questions about the event, you can contact the organizers at 46-52-78.
It’s worth noting that this event at the PolArt residency is organized by the Norilsk Museum as part of a project supported by the Our Norilsk endowment fund.
Earlier, This Is Taimyr reported that the Norilsk Museum invited high school students to play cities.
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Text: Maria Sokolova, Photos: Nikolay Shchipko
