Iouri Podladtchikov was born in Moscow on the 13th of September 1988. Due to his fathers occupation only 4 years after he was born the family moved to Sweden then to the Netherlands and finally settled in Switzerland in 1996. His parents had met studying mathematics. Iouri decided to pursue a sports career in snowboarding as a teenager. He competed for Russia at the olympic games in Torino 2006 before switching to representing Switzerland in 2010 and 2014. After the victory in Sochi in 2014 Iouri signed up at the University of Zurich to study art history and photography. In the following years many injuries made him consider pursuing his studies further. In 2019 he signed up at the International Center of Photography in New York to study in the Creative Practices program. When he returned from New York he continued to study at the University of Zurich and later moved over to the Zurich University of the Arts to study in their BFA program.
Iouri Podladtchikov investigates places, objects and social interactions where a certain weight and volatility are inextricably intertwined. The volatility of these situations is reinterpreted and compared through metaphorical representations.
In his photographic work with platinum -, chromogenic- prints, polaroids and direct positive paper he shows a reverence for conceptual practices. Recent works with elements like caesium, titanium and silver refer to investigations about cold war conflicts through their materiality and subject matter.
His works are imbued with melancholy, which originates from a peripatetic youth with the ensuent longing for home. This element is even more clearly readable in his abstract drawings, writings and orchestrated performances. The performances involve hour long repetitions of a band performing the song magnet by noise punk band Bikini Kill live in a gallery space, or a punishment corner piece involving a young boy facing a corner in front of an audience silently enduring mockery - protest against social hierarchies and principles.
Selected Exhibitions
2022
ππ¦π€π¦π―π΅ ππ’πͺπ―π΅πͺπ―π¨π΄, Simonett&Baer Bookstore & Gallery, Basel, Switzerland. 13. May - 4. June
ππ°πΈ π΅π©π¦ ππͺπ¨π©π΅ ππ¦π΅π΄ ππ―, 10-15.5, ICP, New York City, curated by David Campany
1-2 ππ¦π³π¬π΅π’π¨π¦, 5.5-6.5.2022, ZHdK, ZΓΌrich.
2021
Β«foreverΒ», malmal galerie, Bern, Switzerland.
Das Versprechen, Kunsthalle Emmen, Switzerland.
Brand New Songs, Simonett&Baer Bookstore & Gallery, Basel, Switzerland.
2020
Dinner at 7, Im Grafenhag, Winterthur, Switzerland.
Β«you don't own meΒ», malmal galerie, Bern, Switzerland.
Suddenly Last Summer, Simonett&Baer Bookstore & Gallery, Basel, Switzerland.
How the Light Gets In, ICP-One-Year-Certificate programs exhibition, https://oyc2020.icp.org.
2019
Art Biesenthal, Biesenthal, Germany.
2018
Nicht eine Liebesgeschichte, Au Premier, Zurich, Switzerland.
2017
Babushka Nadja, Simonett&Baer Bookstore & Gallery, Basel, Switzerland.
True Love Is Hard To Find, Simonett&Baer Bookstore & Gallery, Basel, Switzerland.