“The Earth’s Circle. Kolodozero ”

Curator: Annika Haas
Design: Anne Järvpõld and Annika Haas
The exhibition is open to 05.06.2022

On December 17, at 5 pm, the exhibition “The Earth’s Circle. Kolodozero ”, which tells the story of Arkady, a punk priest from Tallinn, will open. The photographer used her camera to capture Arkady’s life and activities in the village of Kolodozero in Karelia from 2009 to 2018, until the tragic death of Arkady.

The village of Kolodozero, hidden deep in the woods of Puudos, is located on the border of the Arkhangelsk Oblast and Karelia in Russia. Fifteen years ago these places fascinated three friends from Moscow who were wandering around the Nordic countries and looking for the meaning of life and, most likely, themselves. In 2000 they pooled their money together and started to build a new church to replace the old one that had burned down in 1977. They also found a future clergyman: the ordination was accepted by one of the friends, a redhead rebel and punk called Arkady Shlykov (1973-2018), who graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 2005.

This photo documentary is about the punk priest Arkady. During his short life, Arkady was associated with Tallinn, where he lived from 1973 until Estonia regained its independence in 1991. At school he was sharp, read a lot and adored football. His school uniform was therefore always dirty and dusty. When the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, Arkady turned to religion. As a teenager, he began attending Orthodox worship services. Arkady warmly welcomed Estonia’s independence, attended demonstrations and recorded these events with his camera. The protagonist’s unique photos of the Estonian mood during the transition period are also presented in the exhibition.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Documentary photographer Ekaterina Solovieva (b. 1977) was born in Moscow and graduated from the university with a degree in journalism, but has been living and working in Hamburg, Germany since 2006. Her creative work focuses mainly on the lives of the rural people living in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In particular, it focuses on people associated with religious traditions and practices, showing their spiritual aspirations, lives and destinies. Two documentaries have been published by Solovieva: “Pilgrimage” (2014, Bad Weather Press, Amsterdam) and “The Earth’s Circle. Kolodozero” (2018, published by Schilt, Madrid). She has had solo exhibitions in Germany, Russia, Italy; she has also participated in many international group exhibitions in the USA, Russia, Germany, etc. The artist has won several international awards for her projects – for example, she is the winner of the Helsinki Photo Festival 2018, she was mentioned at the Critical Mass Awards 2018 and the 2017 Landskruna Photofestival, and she achieved the third place at the 2017 Moscow Photobookfest, etc.

The photographer’s website: ekaterinasolovieva.com