For Photoquai 2011, the Galerie Polka presents “Corps et Âmes”, an exhibition of the work of two photographers: Valery Katsuba and Kosuke Okahara.
Valery Katsuba was born in the former Soviet Union. A graduate of the Admiral Makarov Naval Academy, he did not remain at sea for long, and launched himself very early into photography on the advice of Olga Sviblova, today director of the Moscow House of Photography Museum. The Galerie Polka presents two photographic series on the memory of the body. “Phiscultura” is an interpretation of the photographic archives of St. Petersburg sporting associations at the turn of the 20th century. Portraits of athletes immortalised as heroes in their time. “Air Flight. Body Shock” shows two generations of trapeze artists who defy physical laws. An idea of grace within effort, which recalls the classical and spiritual origins of the first Russian gymnasts from the 1970s.
Kosuke Okahara was born in Japan in 1980. He was represented by the VU’ agency from 2007 to 2010, and his photographs have been exhibited in the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and the Fukuoka Museum of Asian Art. The Galerie Polka exhibits his work for the second time (“United Colors” exhibition, November 2009 – February 2010), in parallel with the presentation at PHOTOQUAI of his series “Ibasyo” on self-mutilation in Japan.
