Natalia Kopkina
MOTHERLAND
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
9 – 27 September 2015
“There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.” (Ecclesiastes, 1:11)
When I was young, I lived in a small two-room apartment in Leningrad with my sister, parents and grandparents. When the re-migration of Ingrians began in 1991, I moved to Turku with my parents. My grandparents and other relatives stayed in Russia. My childhood home was sold in 2006 as no one lived there anymore. I took photographs of the house for memory.
The next year I decided to continue photographing my country of birth and between 2006 and 2015 I made several photography trips to Russia and Estonia. In addition to the places I knew from my childhood, I also visited the hometowns of my parents and grandparents. I wanted to record at least something of the places from the past that could remind me of who I am.
The Russian culture, traditions and language have affected my inner self as well as my visual world. I am interested in the Russian soul – the feeling or identity that I have even though I left Russia a long time ago.
“Our souls as well as our bodies are composed of individual elements which were all already present in the ranks of our ancestors. The ‘newness’ in the individual psyche is an endlessly varied recombination of age-old components.” (Carl Jung)
Natalia Kopkina (b. 1984) will complete her master’s studies in photography at Aalto University this autumn. Motherland is Kopkina’s second solo exhibition. The exhibition has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Patricia Seppälä Foundation.
Further information:
040 760 1545
nkopkina(a)gmail.com
www.nataliakopkina.com
