Elizaveta Pordoina: Un/Masked bei Fotografiska Berlin

In the organizer's words:

On April 25, 2024, Fotografiska Berlin will open the exhibition Un/Masked by the Munich-based, Moscow-born photo artist Elizaveta Porodina. Through the interplay of light, color and shadow, her abstract and surrealistic photographs reflect her inner world: "My works are a window into my subconscious for the audience."

Elizaveta Porodina came to Germany with her family at the end of the 1990s as a so-called "Jewish contingent refugee" from Russia. She felt uprooted, excluded and had difficulties making friends with her peers. Painting became her outlet: "I ran home after school and painted for hours." Inspired by the works of Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mikhail Vrubel and Pablo Picasso, which she discovered in museums and in art books in the living room at home with her mother, she worked with lots of color and expressive faces. An artistic practice that can still be found in her works today. She no longer paints with brushes. Her motifs are created on set using carefully arranged backdrops and artistic lighting.

In Un/Masked, the artist allows visitors to look behind the masks and holds up a mirror to them. As a trained clinical psychologist, she is interested in emotion-driven behavior and has chosen photography as her artistic medium to work with people. Each project was and is an experiment in which she tries to combine contradictory things. She sees people as universes of their own, longing for connection with others.

Porodina has collaborated with a variety of renowned brands and magazines such as Dior, Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Giorgio Armani, Moncler and Vogue. Her work has been shown in international exhibitions and has received several awards. Her influence extends far beyond photography and she is considered one of the artists who blur the boundaries between art and fashion photography.

With her poetic approach and artistic talent, Elizaveta Porodina has made a significant contribution to contemporary photography. Her works invite us to reflect on the complexity of our own and human nature.