Anna Fatyanova in a conversation with Daria Marchik

After taking part in the artist-in-residence program in Bern (residency.ch), Daria Marchik, photographer from Moscow, meets with Anna Fatyanova, initiator of the Bern-Moscow artist exchange project (artistaround.ch).

Anna: Daria, tell me please, what are you working on right now?

Daria: Right now I’m making a photo stencil for PROGR. It’s a photo installation where illustration meets photography meets performance.

Anna: Is it more about art or fashion?

Daria: I never directly worked with fashion. My work is a mixture of performance, costumes and theater. It’s alternative-wearable-art. Working with various types of photography, from antiburlesque on stage to staged victorianesque work, or an object or costume installation and portraits.

Daria Marchik, Twin Anima, 2009

Anna: How do you find your models?

Daria: My subjects are mostly performance artists, musicians, visual artists, couture designers, and different characters, including artists from different fields. Actually I don’t like to call them «models». They are my subjects. Most people I work with are talented artists. Sometimes I meet people while I’m traveling, I shoot artists on stage or backstage or in nature. Sometimes it is a costume installation… It’s all work in progress. I would say it’s my lifestyle. I like meeting people and bringing different people together. A lot of my work are collaborations of different medias. That’s why I like doing stencils – people can see them live. They are open to public.

Anna: In an article I’ve read that your art was described as a futuristic fairy tale. Can you explain what it means for you?

Daria: I work with costumes in making a human installation. There is always an element of nature in it, like in a fairy tale. The outwear or the second skin on my characters, so to speak, is a dramatized persona or an image of the future… I think it is a merger…industrial evolution of our time merging with the natural eco system merging with fantasy characters. They are my fantasy. I would say it’s how I see the future. I really love nature and I incorporate it in the projects. Art is beautiful but what was created naturally is most beautiful. Everything from forests to insects inspires me… Humans look a lot like a natural world, but we have lost the understanding that we belong to the same eco system. All my characters are unique and they are exaggerated of fantasy, but they are real…Real performers, real people with their fantasies and their own inner world. I try to express this in photography and illustration. Although the things I find beautiful are often not traditional beauty…

Anna: Interesting, You said it’s your fantasy. Does that mean what we see on your pictures is your inner world? Would you say that your works are autobiographical?

Daria: I guess everything we do is autobiographical.

Anna: I very much liked you telling your stories about the characters. What kind of people they are, how you’ve met them and all that detail. It was very interesting. There is a way full of adventure and curious things behind each picture you make. People from different countries, different cultures and professions. It sounded very anthropological to me. It could be an anthropological research. Have you thought about it?

Daria: I never heard anybody call my work anthropological. But yes, everything I do is kind of a study. I like studying human behavior.

Anna: You were speaking about non traditional beauty in your art work. And what about non traditional understanding of gender roles? In your photos I can see very different characters. Some of them are male, some are clearly female, but often I can’t mark the sex at all. Is it on purpose?

Daria: I’m interested in discovering different kind of human beings and I think that everything should be leveled down. On the one hand I support an equilibrium in the sexes, but I’m quite feminine as well. Characters in the works should be more important than their sexuality.

Anna: Do you experience full artistic freedom when working in Russia? You know, these days we can read all kinds of things in the media. Especially when talking about sexual orientation…

Daria: Well I wouldn’t believe in everything the media says. If you mean the antigay movement in Russia, I prefer to leave politics out of my work… I just don’t make any difference between sexes in my art works. It’s just about the way you present it. I’m sure even if you are a gay artist, but you act respectful and do things professionally you will not get problems, but some do… I have to say I never experienced any aggression in Moscow. I’m an artist and my friends are artists they are all open minded people and nobody makes a difference between gay or not gay. I do however feel for the people who are bullied over their sexuality.

Anna: You were working and living in Moscow, New York, Berlin. All those huge megapolises. How does it feel to be in Bern? You’ve spent one month here, how did you like the city?

Daria: Bern is a very positive, very beautiful city. I think it’s the perfect place to find a new media for yourself. I’ve met great, lovely people here. I definitely want to come back and do a project here in the future.

Daria Marchik, Installation in PROGR show window. Photo stencil. Bern 2015

Anna: Nice to hear that. It was great having you here! I wish you good luck with your upcoming projects and hope to see you in Bern or Moscow very soon! Thank you for this interesting talk!

Autors: Anna Fatyanova (artistaround.ch), Daria Marchik (dariamarchik.com)

Veröffentlicht unter Allgemein, residency.ch
Schlagwörter: Fotografie, residency.ch