26.10.2022  •  Art NEWS

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GoSee Tip : Diana Markosian ‘Santa Barbara’  between the idealized version of Californian life and the reality of the American Dream – an exhibition at Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris

The monograph ‘Santa Barbara’ (published at Aperture) was chosen by TIME Magazine and the MoMA as the best photo book of the year in 2022. It recreates the story of Diana Markosian’s family’s journey from post-Soviet Russia to the U.S. in the 1990s.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, ‘Santa Barbara’ (1984–1993) was one of the first American TV shows to be broadcast in Russia. Diana Markosian, who watched the series with her family in Moscow, saw the soap opera as a window to an imaginary world, as a means of escape, and as exemplary of the American Dream. Santa Barbara in California became a mythical place which played a great role in the family’s fantasies and ultimately became her home through the sacrifices made by her mother.

In her version of Santa Barbara, Markosian reconstructs and examines both the Russia and United States of her childhood, retracing the real relocation of her family, at the time when her dream came true : “When I was seven years old, living with my family in Moscow, my mother woke me up in the middle of the night and said we were going on a trip. The year was 1996. The Soviet Union had long collapsed, and by then, so had my family. We left without saying goodbye to my father, and the next day, we landed in a new world: America. Inspired by the 1980s American soap opera Santa Barbara, my mother placed an advertisement through a Russian agency, in search of a man who could help her come to America. She was 35. We arrived in California, specifically in the town of Santa Barbara, and were met by an older man who would soon become her husband and take the place of my own father. And this is where the story begins. The idea of touching something that felt untouchable. To re-imagine the past, I collaborated with the original scriptwriter of Santa Barbara, cast a set of actors to play my family, and traveled back to both of my childhood homes to re-enact the departure to and arrival in America,” says the photographer.

“Diana Markosian’s Santa Barbara explores the nature of family and the American Dream. Through a series of staged photographs and a narrative video, the artist reconsiders her family history from her mother’s perspective, relating to her for the first time as a woman, rather than as her daughter, and coming to terms with the profound sacrifices she made to become an American.” Erin O'Toole, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (17 rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, 75003 Paris) opened in 1996 in the Marais, spanning 300 square meters on two levels of an industrial building.

GoSee fillesducalvaire.com & dianamarkosian.com

 
GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

 
GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

 
GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

 
GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

 
GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

 
GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE presents Diana Markosian 'Santa Barbara' (Exposition du 28 octobre au 17 décembre 2022)

 
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