Kostya Smolyaninov

This project deals with religious mysteries in their contemporary comprehension. Thousands of religious people that demonstrate their religiosity “on every street” - that contradicts the secret nature of religious traditions. From the other side, the curious fusion of orthodox, catholic traditions and survivals of “soviet fundamentalism” sometimes looks too comic.

The project "Street Theography" was created during 2006-2014 in different cities of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. No wonder of people praying in church, but the meter of my interest were manifestations of religious feelings in everyday life, on every street. Hence the name and the idea emerged during photographic research ─ especially in the street the conflict between the intimate nature of faith and the public, often ostentatious religiosity strongly appears. In other words, the main theme of my artwork is a conflict between the “sacrum” of faith and “profanum” of manifestation of religious feelings. I believe this way the essential theme of my project meets the theme of festival. www.smolyaninow.com