Londonist favourite the Photographer’s Gallery is currently showing new work by Melanie Manchot from a period she spent in Moscow.
The exhibition consists of Groups and Locations (Moscow), a series of colour photographs, and the seven-channel video work Hotel Moscow. In both works, Manchot instigates encounters using photography and video to explore how Russia’s volatile history is embedded in the memories of its people and marks the contemporary city and its population.
The exhibition closes Sunday so we are anxious to finally make our way down to the gallery and check it out before it is gone forever. Londonist saw Melanie Manchot at a V&A style lounge last fall (where her work was definitely our favourite), so we are particularly excited to finally get a good look at some of her more recent work and hopefully pick up a few postcards (much like American tourists) to support her work.
In addition to her photography Hotel Moscow a film she created shows:
"Muscovites … recalling their versions of the story about one of the city’s most infamous landmarks. Commissioned by Stalin in the 1930s, the building housed visiting dignitaries close to Red Square…. Hotel Moscow was filmed in the small, private yet social spaces of the interviewees’ homes. …. Towards the end of the video loop, these narrations are merged together, creating an overwhelming cacophony of speech and text, where the boundaries between information and chaos, between fact and fiction, are dissolved.
Basically it sounds amazing, and you should be sure to check it out before Sunday.
