09.02.–15.04.2012
Main Hall

Anna Jermolaewa
The Fortieth Year

Opening: February 8, 2012, 7 p.m.

The starting point of Anna Jermolaewa’s project was a photograph from her school days that she had not seen before. The photo was taken in 1986 during her school days at a secondary school in former Leningrad and shows the artist and her five classmates.

Everyone in the picture is 16 years old. At that time some of them thought about committing suicide at the age of 40; 40 seemed to be ancient and a long way off.

Jermolaewa had not seen her classmates since graduation. In 2010 they all celebrated
their fortieth birthday. Anna Jermolaewa decided to find her former classmates and visit them. She found out that only two of the people in the photograph still live in Russia, the others live abroad.

What emerged after travels is a portrait of the diverse ways of life of people who are now scattered across the globe. A collage which includes thoughts about the realization or non-realization of dreams, consequences of uprooting, about the possibilities of reorientation and about growing older... and not least of all about the emigration, raising children, the Russian mafia, music, alcohol, wedding clothes, and drawing portraits.

With special thanks to: Anastasia Abramicheva (Taylor), Elena Burkova (Kaschmensky), Alexander Konopelko (El), Anna Moskvicheva und Anna Pantykina

Anna Jermolaewa, born in 1970 in St. Petersburg, has been living and working in Vienna since 1989. www.jermolaewa.com