Interview with artist Tatiana Stadnichenko (English)
By Luca Misuri. Translated by Lauren Mouat & Luca Misuri. Published in Open Doors Issue N. 6 Dec 2024.
In the courtyard of Palazzo Pucci in the heart of Florence, one step away from the now saturated Accademia Gallery, I wander among the pietra serena columns in search of precious details but as usual there is no time. I see the window of the exhibition space of the Istituto Lorenzo dei Medici, one of the many American universities located in Florence. Some students rush past me as I glimpse some silk-screen prints inside the exhibition space on the ground floor. Shapes of leaves, herbs, flowers. I will soon discov- er that it is the “spirit” of healing plants imprinted on paper as a silk-screen. There are leaves hanging from the low ceiling, a spotlight projects their shadow on the wall (is this a platonic idea?). I know very little, it’s better not to say anything compromising. I have an appointment with Tatiana Stadnichenko, the Russian artist invited by Open Doors to discuss her work with me.
We meet nearby at Caffè Ricasoli, one of the busiest corners for mass tourism, thanks to that block of Marble that so fascinates the masses… or at least mobilizes them. With the David a few hundred meters away, we have a quick coffee and set off in the opposite direction to return to the mannerist courtyard in Palazzo Pucci. As soon as we corss the threshold and Tatiana has greeted the girls at the welcome desk, she pronounces a phrase that immediately hits me: “Since the world is crumbling…”
Tatiana: “Given that the world is falling apart, we have to go back to the roots. Plants are healing, nourishing, purifying. This is a world that now more than ever borders on the abyss of the increasingly probable apocalypse. During Covid I developed this idea. What would we be able to do without the technological tools that constantly support our needs?”
The first room set up by Tatiana features sheets screen-printed with a gel technique de- picting the silhouettes of leaves and flowers. The effect is to observe the negatives of the photos of a compendium of Botany. Tatiana helps me understand…
Tatiana: “We must return to our original thoughts. Ask ourselves “who are we? What are our origins? What do we still know how to do on a practical level today? What would happen if we had to resort to these resources in case of need?
“Can we cure ourselves? Would we be able to survive thanks to these natural elements that surround us but whose precious healing and nutritional contri- bution we have forgotten? Some plants have the ability to calm the constant ag- itation that pervades our minds. It’s an- other way to slow down our busy lives.”
Luca: “Technological evolution and our consequential dependence on it is cer- tainly the main cause of the loss of past techniques that were once fundamental to survival.
“Surely the other element that prevents us from having a balanced life is the constant frenzy of modern life that makes thoughtful decision-making nearly impossible. This results in anxieties and neuroses that are certainly not new in this modern society. But how can we try to react to all this? To say “solve” would sound overly optimistic. What solution or path do you propose?”
Tatiana: “We need to calm this state of global unrest. Alleviate our pains. Slow down our pace. Taking care of another person and oneself is the greatest and most complex act of love that can be accomplished in everyday life. It’s a cathartic act that encour- ages communication through the subtlest vibrations of the soul.
“I come from Tara near Omsk, a city in Siberia the size of Pistoia that’s surrounded by woods, meadows, nature and therefore plants, including the ones I collected with my mother and used for these gel prints. By pulling the gel onto the surface of the sheet I can transfer the healing spirit of the plant to it. This is not a simple list of heal- ing plants. The artistic gesture transforms everything into a tool to cure our current problems. I am an artist, this is all a metaphor for “visual administration” of these healing plants.”
Luca: “We can consider it as a natural medicine administered visually. A noble sub- liminal message. This idea was born in Siberia but continues in Tuscany where you live. How much has this change of location influenced your artistic research?”
Tatiana: “The theme of my personal migration to discover different countries and cultures is an integral part of my artistic research. I often analyze themes of adapta- tion to a new place through video installations showing the constant flow of images inspired from my experience in various countries such as Russia, Norway, Italy to name a few. I can create these by drawing on cloth or through the use of the digital drawings that are projected on sheets with irregular surfaces or even on the architec- ture of a space itself created with paper or fabric whose variegated surface makes the flow of images much more dynamic.
Luca: If I may, I would add that this is less banal than a monitor or a flat surface. Your idea of dynamism comes from the combination of an immobile physical surface (but irregular and not flat like a screen) on which the dynamic image is projected.
Tatiana: “It’s the result of my years of study culminating in the MFA period in Bergen (Academy of Art and De- sign). I met teachers and artists who influenced my stylistic research. Pro- fessor Kjersti Sundland was my mentor while studying for my master’s degree in Bergen. The contribution of Peter Geschwind of the Royal Art Academy of Stockholm and Brandon LaBelle was also invaluable. The search for the connection between the flow of images and the sound is the basis of my artistic expression.
Now I’ll show you the second exhibition room.
At this point we enter the second room and I find myself in front of an sascending cascade of drawn images on a digital roll of approximately 20m and projected onto a cloth hanging from the ceiling. It has the shape of the side of a mountain or a river that descends into a valley. On the surface I see printed shapes of ferns on which the flood of images flow in a continuous motion. Stadnichenko tells me that according to a Siberian legend, when a fern is found flowering in the summer, it generates powers in the person who discovered it, allowing them to even understand the language of animals.
Stadnichenko’s modern multimedia research is juxtaposed with the primary aim of her research based on the rediscovery of primordial laws inherent in our DNA. I sense that her objective is to reawaken a part of our essence that has been forgotten due to the progressive acceleration of the rhythms of life that are so opposed to our original nature. And in fact before continuing our dialogue, she has me sit in the room for five minutes in front of the cloth on which her images cascade, immersed in a constant visual and sound flow.
Immersion: The healing waterfall
The sound of Tibetan bells (set to music by Tommaso Ferrini) help me detach from the constant flow of thoughts and connect to the visual work in front of me. The rise of pro- jected images of plant forms and digitalized lines collides with the sound of falling wa- ter; although at a certain point, the inversion of the visual flow leads the viewer toward the natural gravitational fall of images associated with waterfalls that Stadnichenko has been able to contemplate in her beautiful Scandinavian landscapes. She calls it the healing waterfall.
The sensation? I feel a significant reduction of thoughts in my head. I feel the need to sit on the ground in contemplation. Am I perhaps slowing down?
Then the door opens, Stadnichenko comes back in and then I return to the heart of the matter.
Luca: “If you have created all this, does it mean that you think there is a possibility of saving us? To heal?”
Tatiana: “We could put all these confused politicians in a room like this, insert the smell of healing plants, the sounds, the visual flow, lock them inside for a whole day and hope that on the way out a balance will be re-established that can be quickly transmitted to the rest of the world.”
Luca: “Help them remember? And not to forget again. Healing with beauty. And maybe educate the new generations about this too? The children?”
Tatiana: “Definitely! Although right now we have to think about how many people are dying due to these bad decisions which are in turn caused by this imbalance. There is no time to waste. We must try to stop these people, these decisions that gen- erate wicked actions. Then educating the new generations would complete the work.“
Luca: “A question from an Italian to an artist who has the experience of of compar- ison with other countries. What is the economic situation of an artist who tries to dedicate him or herself entirely to artistic goals?”
Tatiana: “Very often I am asked how I survive as an artist in 2024! I can honestly say that it is still quite difficult. Our world is becoming increasingly material, fast and superficial, based on infinite content spread by various social channels, including the currently most used Instagram and Tik tok. An artist has the priority of going in depth and questioning the various processes of the human being. It takes time to mature a concept before it can be spread and it is not a given that the public is willing to invest time in it.”
Luca: “It is normal that all this frenzy is reflected in social channels and consequently in impulsive scrolling at ever greater speeds on social content including images of works of art inserted for example on Instagram. This does not allow for the adequate, I would say even minimal, absorption of one of the possible meanings, concepts or sensations that such a work is able to emanate. It drastically superficializes the whole absorption of art.
“Social media is certainly useful for advertising and marketing purposes but then the physical, direct lived fruition of a project is needed. Have we perhaps technologically recreated the concept of the reflection of Platonic ideas? How can we survive eco- nomically and artistically in this confused era?”
Tatiana: “In my case I combine about 5-6 jobs, all related to the field of art: I teach different courses such as classical painting, drawing, sketching, painting with nat- ural pigments, coffee painting and wine painting. I work as a graphic designer, as a translator of art courses, administrator in a private art academy and book illustrator. Book illustration is one of my favorite processes. Last year 6 books for children and adults were published with my illustrations. It is very satisfying to hold the book in your hands, printed with your images.”
There is so much artistic quality, expertise, research and substance in these creations, even if what strikes me most after these words are their noble objectives. What matters is taking care of others as a supreme act of Love that made my soul vibrate. After seeing Stadnichenko’s work, I for one promise to treasure this ancestral life lesson and try to spread this message where I can.
