The Museum of Contemporary Art of Moscow presents as part of the 11th International Month of Photography in Moscow PHOTOBIENNALE 2016, Kuvady an exhibition by Russian photographer Lucia Ganieva curated by Anna Zaitseva. Project presented by MAMM and Gallery of Schmidt, Amsterdam.
Kuvadi is a small rural village in the republic of Tatarstan, at approximately 1000 km east of Moscow. The community is Muslim, and they also have their own language, a dialect related to the Turkish.
I have portrayed the inhabitants of this village, particularly the women, in their traditional everyday costumes and in front of the fences that surround their properties. The fences and gates are custom made by the owners themselves and they all are different. They are decorated and painted in bright colours with traditional patterns.
In the summer of 2008 I took my camera and tripod and set off to photograph the landscapes of Tartary, where I spent my childhood living with my daue-ani (Tatar for ‘grandmother’). It was very hot and we drove to a village to buy water. That’s how I first got to know Kuvady.
It was a small village but very well tended, and in front of each house stood a gate, regarded here as an object of family pride. The patterns they are decorated with are typical, yet never repeated – the design is simultaneously canonical and unique. Realising this, I resolved to create a portrait series of local residents in national costume in front of their house gates. Haymaking was in full swing, one of the busiest times of the year, so there was limited time to pose for me. The older generation agreed to have their photos taken. Several of them were in a hurry and got photographed in everyday clothing. Others dashed into their homes first and donned festive white kerchiefs and brightly-coloured dresses kept for special occasions. My grandmother once possessed a kerchief like this. She put it on when we visited her female friends to drink tea washed down with confectionery.
– LG
FESTIVAL
PHOTOBIENNALE 2016
The 11th International Month of Photography in Moscow
Kuvady
Lucia Ganieva
From March 15 till April 17, 2016
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Moscow
Ermolaevskiy str, 17
Moscow
Russia
http://www.mmoma.ru/en/
http://www.mamm-mdf.ru/en/festivals/photobiennale-2016/
