The exhibition “Sun Kiss” was the first comprehensive solo show of artist Sasha Tamarin’s works. It presented a diverse body of work the  has created over the past two years: his own photographs, family photos of town residents he had met, photographs made by residents during shooting trips with the artist or using disposable cameras he passed out to people with whom he had developed a special relationship. 

The exhibition was a journey, with stops and repetitions, accelerations and haltings.

When he arrived at Arad, the artist had sought to explore the roots of the experience of emigrating to the town, mainly that of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. In his imagination, they have moved from freezing snow to a blazing summer, from that bright white to a warm yellow. However, as the work progressed and deepened, the artist’s questions changed and became more poignant. He turned away from the attempt to indicate the moment of arrival and landing, to dive into the experience of assimilation and integration. He himself had undergone a similar process of assimilation in the town, incessantly taking pictures of his surroundings.

The process of assimilation accompanies the creative one and the exhibition, as Tamarin lingers on various moments, decisive and not so much, with a loving, non-judgmental gaze. The conflict between seeking to assimilate and the wish to be unique has not disappeared; it is present as one aspect of assimilation as a process of learning through interaction and change, stemming from a relationship with a human, natural environment.

 

Photographers participating in the project:

Alexander Bainov, Irina Baynov, Yevgenia Dark, Elena Elman, Dora Listmangov, Eliyah Marantz, Inna Mozel, Nadejda, Elizabeth and Alix Pojevchevckiy, Irina Rogachevsky, Anna Shlakhter, Lubov Umanskaya, Evgeny Zyabkin, Sima Zyabkin