When I went to Moscow in the winter of 1989 to see the first retrospective of Malevich after his death at the Tretyakov Gallery, I didn't have a clue that I would be also filming Robert Rauschenberg at the opening of his major exhibition in the New Tretyakov Gallery, the first of such kind to be held in the Soviet Union. Since I had my Vide8 camera with me I began filming as I entered the gallery and continued mingling through the crowd with it, occasionally noticing some well known faces from the Moscow art scene, both "official" and "unofficial". At some point, when I realized where the center of the event was, I started walking in that direction. Interestingly, when people in front of me noticed the camera they would let me walk through and at some point I realized that I arrived at the spot where the opening ceremony, led by the heads of Artists Union, would take place. Naturally, I decided to stay there and recorded the entire event up close, with all the opening speeches and important guests. These frames are just a selection of portraits of the star of the entire event, Robert himself which I thought would be interesting to present separately.
Only afterwards, when I stopped filming and left the event, it became clear to me that it was not I who was holding and controlling the camera but, on the contrary, it was the camera that was leading and guiding me through the crowd and I was its walking tripod.
Incidentally, those were the days when I was posing for my Moscow portraits being made by the Arbat street artists not so far from there.
Man With a Moving Camera Tale
Many years ago I travelled far away from home to an exotic and beautiful land but with some strange customs I wasn't familiar with.
It so happened that one day I found myself in a huge space full of local people moving around, individually or in small groups, sometimes standing in front of the unusual objects they call "art" scattered throughout the space or hanging on the walls.
Occasionally some of them would look at me with amusement but in a friendly manner, at least this is how I understood it. I guess I must have seemed like an alien to them as well.
At some point a small group of dignitaries gathered in the center surrounded by all the people and started performing an interesting ceremony, talking and looking at each other, at some point even hugging and kissing , in what seemed to be some kind of right of passage they call "vernissage".
Even after spending some time there and recording what I saw with my camera, I couldn't understand the strange behavior of these people and what they were doing by moving around together within this enclosed space. And, as a moving observer with a camera, I was influencing and changing their behavior when noticed.