Sacred Procession

2012-2014

I began to shoot the procession in 2012 when the major changes in Russian domestic and foreign policy were happening. In the era of global capitalism I see the rehabilitation of two old opposite political institutions: the church and the Soviet-like ideology.

The Velikoretskiy Sacred Procession is a huge Orthodox pilgrimage, which gathers annualy up to 30000 people from all over Russia and Eastern Europe, from all walks of life. The poorest wrapped in plastic and cloth, the rich go along with them driving expensive cars. People walk for six days, sleeping in tents. Because of the incredible diversity the procession is visually very rich. This is “the new Baroque” with an overabundance of details and colors.

The series also reflects on a mixture of old and new world in modern Russia. The old world comprises rituals and conservative thinking, which denies the western views as being sinful, low, and far from true belief in God. Nevertheless, a lot of the new things they use during the ascetic pilgrimage are material goods of global capitalism. So it’s the point where the new and the archaic collide.

Nikita Shokhov

Baltic Biennale of Photography

Kaliningrad, 2015

Nikita Shokhov gathered material during 3 years of shooting at Velikoretsk sacred procession, the oldest orthodox pilgrimage in Russia. Like in previous projects the artist has not solely documented the reality, but he created a visual experiment by interfering to the natural light with color filters, or sometimes offering a scenario to the heroes.Thus, the author goes from photography as a document to the field of contemporary art. The experiment continues in the exposition. And the concept of the installation was done specifically for the space of Baltic Biennial. It is based on the idea of overcoming the limits of the "frame", and the elongation of the hall referes to the crowd of pilgrims extended for many miles.

Supported by The Foundation of Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin

Photoquai 2015

“We Are Family”

biennale

Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris

Interview de Nikita Shokhov, photographe russe sélectionné pour l'édition 2015 de Photoquai. Plus d'informations sur http://www.photoquai.fr/2015/photographe...

Nikita Shokhov was born in 1988 in Kamensk-Uralski, in the heart of Russia. Realizing that he was more interested in the cinema and photography than in his law studies at the university in Ekaterinburg, he took some relevant courses while still managing to get his degree. He then went on to the Sverdlov Film Studio in Ekaterinburg and the Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia in Moscow, where he now lives and works. In 2014 he was awarded third prize in the World Press Photo Portraits section.

Held every year from 3–8 June, the Procession of the Cross in Velikoretsk is Russia's oldest pilgrimage. Running from the city of Kirov to the banks of the Velikaia river, where an icon of Saint Nicholas was discovered centuries ago, it annually attracts some 30,000 pilgrims from all over the country. The first time Nikita Shokhov attended, in 2012, Vladimir Putin had just been elected for the third time: the rehabilitation of Soviet ideology and the Church, Russia's two historically opposed power players, was under way. Over the next two years he noted that religious conservatism – six hundred years of Orthodox tradition – did not seem to exclude such ultimately capitalist gadgetry as digital cameras, smartphones, tablets and high-tech hiking gear. At the same time he did not fail to spot the faithful's scepticism towards a church whose leaders are overtly colluding with the government and whose clergy are notoriously corrupt. He frequently worked with a hidden camera as a way of protecting his critical stance; nonetheless, he retains a deep respect for his country's history and culture.

curator Liza Factor, 2015