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Letum non omnia finit

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Letum non omnia finit

25.05.2010

I don’t see a need to speak of the significance of his work. This will done quite eloquently through exhibits, films and literary meetings, which to this day continue to be held in honor of the Nobel laureate. They are a search for meaning in his magical writings, an attempt to reach into the unplumbed depth of this author’s talent.

It’s no secret that Brodsky was enamored with Venice. He traveled to the city 17 times, and always during the winter months. And he was buried in the Venetian cemetery San Michele, half way between Russia, his motherland, and America, which harbored him after he was kicked out of his motherland.

With each passing year, the works of Joseph Brodsky are attracting more and more attention, and his thoughts and views are becoming ever more timely and topical. Brodsky’s works served as an inspiration for photographer Konstantin Leifer’ project “Embankment of the Incurable”, named after one of Brodsky’s books of essays poem by the same name (English version titled Watermark).

“After reading this work, I was so impressed that I felt an irresistible urge to travel to Venice in winter and try to express my emotions through photographs,” Leifer said.

Venice in Brodsky’s “Embankment of the Incurable” is an animate figure that experiences the same feelings as the lyrical hero, as well as sickness, love and striving for peace and tranquility… And this is what Konstantin Leifer attempted to do in his work. In his photographs you won’t find the typical views of the city that have been instilled in our minds thanks to tourist booklets. They depict a different Venice. The artist strived to show viewers this city through the prism of the deeply personal and intimate text of Brodsky.

The exhibit, which can be found in the Gallery on Spolnom in Moscow, includes around 70 photographs taken by the photographer over the course of 9 days this past January. “Without a doubt, the unforgettable impression that Brodsky’s essay made upon me left its mark on this series of photographs,” Leifer says. “They are also united by a common sentiment: one of inevitability but at the same time tranquility, as everything in life in ephemeral, everything gradually changes, as if flowing out in a stream of life. Water, time and Brodsky are what these works have in common.” 

And the photographer succeeded in capturing the uniqueness of the poet’s images, and the similarities between Venice and the river of the Neva also vividly come across. When Brodsky lived in St. Petersburg, he dreamed of Venice; and when in Venice, he recalled St. Petersburg.

“I sought to connect Venice and St. Petersburg through Brodsky’s poetic world,” says Konstantin Leifer. “And there are plans in the works to photograph St. Petersburg and try to see Venice there.”

In addition to the photographs, the exhibit also includes paintings by Galina Bystritskaya, who painted Venetian cityscapes. The photographs and paintings create two reflective parallels to the Embankment of the Incurable essays. They form a cycle that, like the poems of Brodsky, creates disquieting and inimitable images.

Perhaps the words that we find inscribed in Latin on Joseph Brodsky’s gravestone have been proven true: Letum non omnia finit (Death does not end it all).

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