The Berlin-based photographer and conceptual artist Victoria Rosenman, who grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, talks about the central message of her artistic work during her interview.
Butchers Venus_ 2013, Foto: Victoria Rosenman
Victoria, please describe the core theme and central message of your work.
My art tells of an eternally human experience: the high-risk, horribly illusory beauty of relationships, power and dependence, destruction and creation, obsession and surrender. The leitmotif is the transformative gaze of mutual exploration between the artist and the people surrounding her.
Who are you? What do you see in me? What could I be for you? And: What would I be without you? How far will you go? What will you allow? How do you release the emotional tension? Do we reach the contemplative level of absolute art, or do we crash?
It is photo stagings, objects, texts ( manifestos ) and especially installations with real people that reveal the process of people’s necessary willingness to allow uncomfortable states.
The artistic process is more important than the final result. It is interpersonal phases of uncertainty that ideally result in a new strength.
Introduce us to the work that you feel exemplifies or best embodies the message of your work.
You see a large projection on the facade of a building. A photographic staging is projected that is titled “Butcher’s Venus.” This is my vision of a person who is very close to me and has opened up to me completely with all his fears and phobias. This person stands directly in front of the projection on a pedestal, as a real person and at the same time as an art installation.
Projection Butcher’s Venus, 2015, Photo: Victoria Rosenman
The viewer observes, so the motionless, living person and his image created by me. This image ( the projection / photography ) is to be understood as the final result and a tangible proof, of my artistic process ( which is the value of my creation ). It is the proof of our relationship that we both had to enter into, so that I can explore the ever changing interpersonal hierarchy, as art.
What is the goal of your art, your work – what should it achieve for the viewer?
The goal of my art is first and foremost – my own self-gratification, that is. Ideally, I would appreciate it if my art raises questions in the viewer and accompanies him longer in thought, so that it can “mark” and also exist in your omnipresence everywhere.
THE DEED | THE WORK is a complementary and separately presented part of THE INTERVIEW IN|DEEDS with Victoria Rosenman.
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