Fyodor Telkov

Вorn in 1986 in Nizhny Tagil, lives and works in Yekaterinburg.
Participant of the main project at the 4th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (2017).

Graduated from the Nizhny Tagil State Social Sciences and Education Academy (Art and Graphics Faculty). Member of the Russian Photo Artist Union from 2010. Finalist of the 2016 Photomuseum Grant Program (London), the New East Photo Prize 2018 (London, 2018), as well as the 2nd Premio Gabriele Basilico (Milan, 2018). Winner of the 2016 Fotocanal Photography BOOK (Madrid, 2016). Participant in the Obskura Festival (Penang, 2018), FotoFestPhotobiennale (Houston, 2012), and the art residence program at the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (2015).

36 Views, 2012–2015
Photo series

36 Views of Mount Fuji is a famous series of landscape prints by the Japanese artist Hokusai. Each print includes Fuji – a sacred mountain for the Japanese. Degtyarsk is a small city in Sverdlovsk Oblast with a population of just 14 000 people. This formerly prosperous mining town nowadays is forced to live on subsidies from the Oblast Government. Two large spoil tips are situated on either side of the town, formed from the waste material removed during mining from the Capital 1 and Capital 2 mines. The principal enterprise of the town, once gaining great riches from mining copper ore, has left in its wake a large-scale ecological catastrophe: water from the mines continues to poison the soil and water bodies above, while the spoil tips are highly radioactive. Few former miners remain in the city, as most of them had experienced serious health problems. The citizens consider gossiping about the possibility that the Japanese will someday buy the spoil tips. However, the city government decided against this, as it sees them as “strategic” resources. The spoil tips can be observed practically from any place in Degtyarsk, “two Fujis” observing the comings and goings of the citizens. The very image of the spoil tips acts as a metaphor for the post-Soviet economy and the current state of things in the numerous Russian factory towns. The photo project was launched in 2012 and was completed in 2015. The project resulted in the 36 Views photo album that was published in Spain by the Ediciones Anómalas publishing house.

Exhibition participant:

5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art Preview