I AM NOT I

I AM NOT I is an iconic series of self-portraits by Boris Mikhailov in the early 1990s, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In front of the camera, the artist plays the role of an antiheroic figure. contrasting with the masculine stereotype and strongly linked to the regime, the echo of which is reflected in the pure and sober black and white adopted for each image. Mikhailov, who has always explored the limits of photography and its links with other disciplines, associates it here with the atmosphere and grammar of the theater. The spectators attend a performance that recalls the tradition of the theater of the absurd, with a single, naked protagonist who manipulates a sex toy in every possible way. Although its behavior irrational may at first glance appear to be an act of celebration and relief at the end of a grim era, through repetition, it becomes quickly turns into an allegory for the fear of an uncertain future - it seems to be a performance for himself and for the camera. The frame photographic is the prison of the artist who, unlike the photographer, does not can't look past the dark fabric behind him.