Alexei Gartinski

I was born in 1962 in Moscow, Russia, and I live and work in Geneva, Switzerland. Apart from a couple of years at an art school for kids (when I was about 5-7), I have never studied art. Over the years though it became one of my many interests and inspirations; it comes and goes, and comes again. What you see here has been mainly created in 2001-2003...I dont know where what I do comes from. One can analyse it, psychoanalyse and rationalise it to death. And it will certainly be quite amusing. But entirely beyond the point Whatever I do makes no sense. I simply pick up photos, pictures from magazines and newspapers, cut them to pieces and then put them together again. And when they fit, I glue them on the black paper. Thats all. There are no ideas behind, no plan, no conscious wish to express something. How do I know when they fit? I just know, thats all. I dont create out of nothing. I take something that has already existed, then turn it around and play with it. Ive been doing that since I was a child. In the process I discovered that everything could be something else. So now, when I look around, I can see a lot of things I could never see before... This playing is not totally innocent though. It always involves destroying, cutti...