On Tuesday 23 May 2006, from 6 to 9 p.m. the exhibition of work Intermezzo by Boris Mikhailov opens at Guido Costa Projects in via Mazzini 24, Turin.
Born in Kharkov in the Ukraine in 1938, Boris Mikhailov is considered to be one of the most representative artists of the ex-Soviet Union and one of the most important photographers in the world today. His work, which explores various recurring themes, deals with the Ukraine’s recent history, from the period of Soviet dominance to the present day. The sole subject in his work is the city of Kharkov, its inhabitants and the profound political and social changes that it has witnessed.
An unorthodox photographer, both in terms of themes and technique, Mikhailov was a key figure of the Soviet avant-garde in the 60s and 70s, alongside Ilya Kabakov, Adrei Monastyrsky, Eric Bulatov and others. Marginalised for almost three decades by critics and denied access to official circuits, Mikhailov represents a rare example of uncompromising artistic determination, an example for an entire generation of young Russian artists.
His first exhibitions in the West date back to the late 80s when he immediately attracted the attention of Museums and important European institutions. In 2000, he was awarded the Hasselblad prize, ranking him among the top living photographers, and paving the way for his entry into some of the most important public and private collections in the world.
Since 2000 Boris Mikhailov has been living in Berlin and Kharkov.
The exhibition at the Guido Costa Projects Gallery brings together a new body of unpublished work, taken while in the Crimea during the summer of 2002. This series, commonly known as “pink”, fits in with the three best-known series of photographs by Mikhailov: Red, 1968-1975; “brown” (On the Ground, 1991) and the “blue” series (At Dusk, 1993), each dedicated to a precise historic moment of the ex-Soviet Union, respectively real socialism, glasnost and perestroika.
The colour pink, which could lead some to think of a new dawning, rebirth and a transition towards better times, is in reality – as indicated by the exhibition’s title – a sort of intermediate point between an old and transpired socio-political model and a new form of capitalism whose effects and benefits still have to be evaluated.
It is not by chance that Mikhailov should have chosen to photograph an anonymous beach in the Crimea, in the Ukraine, to represent this new era of ex-Soviet Russia. This is the topos of the newborn middle class and nouveau riche.
The setting is vulgar, peppered with newly arrived symbols of globalised wellbeing. But the feeling of decadence and rebirth, poverty and opulence still appears to hang in the balance: a sick aura lingers here, a pink tainted with rust.
As is the custom, Mikhailov’s shots are ruthlessly stark, revealing both heroism and the commonplace, the trivial and poetic. The series Intermezzo, which occupies an important place in Mikhailov’s oeuvre, comprises a series of panoramic diptychs, as was the case with the Brown and Blue series, many of which are one-off prints. The project is completed with a series of rare vintage shots and some large-format works.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until 29 July 2006 (see gallery opening times).

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Boris Mikhailov (Karkhov 1938) lives and works in Berlin and Karkhov, Ukraine. One-man exhibitions of his work have been held in the most important museums worldwide, these include: the MoMa in New York, the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, the ICA in Philadelphia, the MIT in Cambridge, the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Kunsthalle in Zurich, the DAAD Gallery in Berlin, the Portikus in Frankfurt, the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, the Photomuseum in Winterthur, the Museo Pecci in Prato, the Saatchi Gallery in London, the Folkwang Museum in Essen.
In 2000, he won the Hasselblad Prize in Göteborg, and the Citibank Photography Prize the Kraszna-Kraus Prize in 2001.
His photographs can be found in the most important public and private collections in the world.
Boris Mikhailov is represented by the Pace/McGill Gallery in New York, Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin and Guido Costa Projects, Turin.