(for a)/THE STORY

Russiantearoom gallery, as a growing human, went through several stages in its development, quite simular to that of an artist. At the beginning, for 4 years I was doing things as I felt them, following my taste and intuition, when absence of experience makes you creative and is actually a plus.

I had an unusual small but very cosy space, I put flowery wall paper up myself, all visitors were greeted as guests, sometimes they were staying for a tea and a chat, certain of them became clients and  friends. This simple and tender video by Erik Pezarro explains it quite well. 

In 2011, Russiantearoom moved to a 200 sq.m. space in the Marais, the main gallery area in Paris. The ground floor was not a white but a grey cube (much better color to underline the beauty of a photograph ), and the basement was a really magic cave space, with a cosy atmosphere of a Russian dining room. Some visitors were taking it for a Ilya Kabakov inspired installation. Many, while getting downstaires, did not want to leave, spending hours in teadrinking and chatting with me.

Basement floor.Photo by Celine Cruz

With a desire to follow the rigid rules of the gallery world, I respected the game of exhibition planning, press releasing, guest inviting. I even had a fancy concept to build up the program, inventing a specific mind map! "TIME-LIGHT-SPACE are the crucial triangle at the foundation of photography. These corner stones combined and extended form also the ethos and the conception of the RTR." (drawing on the gallery wall by Natalia Taravkova).

The big space permitted me to conceive big exhibitions, presenting solo or group ones, working on my curatorial eye, my approach to show photography. My favourites are several of them:  "The Unpublished" of Antanas Sutkus, Fernando Brito's "Lost and the Landscape", the photographic juxtapositions "Story and History", with Sergey Maximishin and Jiri Hanke, and "Amours libres", with Jean-Philipe Charbonnier and Antanas Sutkus. But the best one, for me, was "Body. Revealed". I do not draw beforehand any plan for hanging the works. Normally, as a kitchen chef, I imagine the right mix of ingridients in my head, and then, when the works are lined up along the walls, I spend several days, such as an artist, to move them around to find the perfect place for each of them, so they communicate with each other, creating a harmonious ensemble/unity. With "Body.Revealed." It was magical. I put it up very quickly, and it was a perfect fit. It felt as if the Gallery God was guiding me.. like a gentle blessing.

And... after 3 years of the marathon in this big space, I conceived the grand finale - "HAPPY!" show - a big fresco, a monumental hanging of 144 works, in an ancient manner of covering the walls brom ceing to the floor. it was a challenge and I made it!

2 years of a retreat in Brussels later, where I had a private viewing room and was living a cool belgium style life, - here I come back to Paris, and I have installed Russiantearoom 2.O version in a very special place - Central Dupon, one of the oldest photo laboratories in Paris. 

This magical place inspired me for my best exhibition ever  - "On Behalf of Baboushka".. based on my personal story, and also on anybody's story.. This very exhibiton permitted the spectator to plunge into it, art serving the guide and putting you in a particular state of mind and memory travel..

5 successfull expositions later I moved into outer space.