Yuri Mechitov – After Parajanov

After Parajanov – Cinematographic photo collages for his 100th birthday

We are delighted to present the renowned Georgian photographer Yuri Mechitov once again at the Galerie nEUROPA. For many years, Mechitov accompanied the career of the influential and controversial Soviet Russian director Sergei Parajanov with his camera. He created milestones in Soviet Russian film history with films such as “The Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors” and “The Color of Pomegranates”. The photographer’s collaboration and friendship with Parajanov resulted in an impressive photographic biography of the director.

Yuri Mechitov shows Sergei Parajanov collages in Central Europe for the first time

Never before shown in Central Europe, Mechitov’s surrealist-Dadaist collages of his own photographs (portraits of Parajanov) and newspaper clippings creatively and provocatively combine three means of artistic expression (collage, photography, film) to pay homage to the filmmaker’s artistic genius. With this visual hypertextuality, he interprets the essence of Paradjanov’s unique style, his emotionality and his artistic vision, offering a special insight into his creative universe. Mechitov’s fascination with Parajanov reflects the poetry and surreal beauty of Parajanov’s world in the three media of photography, film and collage.

“These collages of mine were naturally created under the great influence of the artistic works of Sergei Parajanov, who was an unsurpassed master of this art form. His amazing works were characterized by the variety of meanings, elegance of composition, spontaneity and apparent ease of execution. In my works, the hero of the collages is Parajanov himself. I have kept the old pictures of Sergei, which I use in the collages, in the form of test strips that I made when enlarging the photographs. This work is not finished yet, I expect to create a series of further images, knowing that you can’t compete with the maestro, but you can create something that allows us to see the life of this brilliant man in a new way.”

Yuri Mechitov was born on May 10, 1950 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He began taking photographs at the age of 8, but it was only later that he began to think seriously about photography. His first exhibition took place in Tbilisi in 1979, followed by over 20 solo and 50 group exhibitions in Georgia and internationally. Initially working in the documentary field, he discovered his passion for portrait photography. Accompanied by artists such as Mark Polyakov, Sergey Parajanov and Vladimir Pichkhadze, he received valuable impulses for his art.

Yuri Mechitov will be present at the vernissage and will also give a lecture on Saturday, 21.09.2024, on the topic “What does it mean to be a genius?” in reference to Sergei Parajanov.

Curation: Matthias Schumann

Das Projekt wird gefördert durch das Staatsministerium für Soziales und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Diese Maßnahme wird mitfinanziert mit Steuermitteln auf Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes im Rahmen des Förderprogramms »Wir für Sachsen«.