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The study of the sea: winter Adriatics
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Your uncertain shadow
Two capitals of two former empires – Moscow and London – happened to me so far. The first one I did not choose, the second one I did. It is rather symbolic that the start of my life in London in Autumn 2003 coincided with the Weather Project exhibition at Tate Modern by Olafur Eliasson. […]
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The importance of healing
2 years today since my hip surgery, the words of the Nigerian poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo come to mind: “You see, in a culture like ours, we were never taught the importance of healing, we were only taught to survive. Not heal. Bury, survive.” Recovery Song is the handmade book of my recovery process from the […]
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From across the pond
to return from the road trip across the USto London, with familiar mews, crescents and turns,yet there are more streets than i can count. to show one beast to another,who did not walk here for three decades.much has changed in the docks, in the City, in everywhere,but not the darkroom in St Martin-in-the-Fields’ crypt. not […]
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A sketch for the centenary
My paternal grandfather Mikhail Gefter was a historian, philosopher, intellectual. As an adult, years after his death I learned of his pupils throughout the world, of his philosophical and historical writings, and of the www.gefter.ru platform for social sciences and intellectual thought named after him. Many called him МЯ (Михаил Яковлевич – Mikhail Yakovlevich). I called […]
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12 Bernstein
It was in the Summer 2016 when I first encountered the story of the derelict building at 12 Sholem Aleichem street (formerly Bernstein street). I came to Lviv to research Debora Vogel and her literary and artistic circles of the inter-war period. Wherever I turned I seemed to hear about the building – Google, resources at the Lviv Centre for Urban […]
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Lviv-London Double Impact
Join us at Pushkin House, London on November 14 for a special evening of imagery, history, words and music with London resident Asya Gefter, who has just launched the ‘Fragments of Memory’ project in Lviv, and Lviv resident Mark Tokar, double bass player and a key figure in the Ukrainian free jazz scene. Over the past two […]
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From Pop Art to Community Arts
It has been an absolute joy to work with Peter Young on a film ‘From Pop Art to Community Arts: Hackney in the 1970s-80s’ commissioned for A British Museum Partnership exhibition ‘Warhol to Walker: American prints from pop art to today’. This special exhibition explores the influence print movements have had on Hackney. Starting with […]
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My Europe
The end of the era perhaps? A new chapter? Of history. Of my history. I spent my twenties struggling and fighting to get the European passport. I finally did, just weeks after I turned 30. Inner drive to be at home in Europe was huge – would not have had the energy and the resources now. London happened […]