Gomma Photography Grant 2017
Bitter Honeydew
Photographer
Kirill Golovchenko
Bitter Honeydew
13 Oct, 2022
A wide shot, a horizontal image. A classic interpretation of a contemporary genre scene – the night – though we don’t know where. It is a summer evening, the weather is mild. On the side of the road, sitting on a simple canvas chair, a barechested man is waiting. In front of him are melons and watermelons, yellow, green with white stripes. Some are cut open, tempting you with the rosy tint of their fresh and juicy flesh. The scene is lit by a single bulb that diffuses a yellow light sculpting the night into an almost romantic landscape, one you might place as being in Germany or Central Europe.  A summer scene you could find elsewhere, in other latitudes, along with the same fruit, and other things – vegetables, provisions, snacks for that break when the road becomes too long or when the invitation to stop for a wander seduces you. Here, we are in Ukraine. The traders come from Azerbaijan, from Georgia, from Armenia. But that hardly matters, as far as the meaning of the images is concerned. The essence, perfectly pictorial, remains this soothing perception of a world abundant with sweetness, of a promise of pleasure. - Text by Christian Cajoulle
About the photographer
Kirill Golovchenko
Kirill Golovchenko (born in Odessa, Ukraine) studied photography and design under Barbara Klemm and Kris Scholz at Darmstadt University, 2002 to 2007. He was a fellow at DAAD in 2008 and 2010, and at the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in 2014. In 2009 and 2014 he was supported by VG Bild-Kunst and, in 2014, he was artist in residence at the Goethe Institute in Kiev. Kirill Golovchenko has been awarded among others: European Publishers Award for Photography, 2014; European Photo Exhibition Award; Abisag-Tüllmann-Preis, 2013; Dr. Berthold Roland-Fotokunstpreis 2012; and a documentary photography grant from Wüstenrot Foundation, 2007. Exhibitions: Deichtorhallen, House of Photography, Hamburg; Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, 2015; Museum Folkwang, Essen; The Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, 2014; Photoville, New York City; Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2013; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 2012; Dortmunder-U, Dortmund; Goethe-Institut Paris, 2011; Photomuseum Braunschweig, 2010; Photo España, Madrid, 2009; Uferhallen, Berlin; Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, 2008; Designhaus Darmstadt, 2007.
