Inside an Art Studio: Totibadze and Pasternak

Sep 11, 2018 - 03:12 pm

Anton Totibadze is one of the youngest representatives of Totibadze dynasty of painters - his father and uncle have a gallery at Winzavod. Sasha Pasternak is his girlfriend and a painter. Last year they rented a two-floor studio in the Narkomfin building, a semi-dilapidated constructivist masterpiece by Moisei Ginzburg. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

SP: My area is upstairs - it's very small. The roof leaks, so we have a special tub placed here to catch the water. It sucks, but that's how we got cheapest apartment in Narkomfin. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

SP: But the view of the courtyard is amazing, I keep painting it again and again. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

AT: We found this studio by accident. We actually had to look up Narkomfin after we got the studio to find out why it was special. It looked horrible when we moved in — probably drug addicts used to live here. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

AT: I spend most of my time here and almost never live in my actual home. But there's no shower, so I go home every couple of days to clean up and change clothes. But that's it. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

AT: Right away we threw a big party and invited about fifty people. We thought, “Why not? We won’t bother anyone — almost no one else lives here.” But we were wrong. It turned out that the walls are thin here and one of the neighbors complained about the noise. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

AT: The cops came to shut it down. The next day we couldn't get into the building, but we patched things up with the neighbors and try to have more low-key parties. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

SP: Too bad we need to move out so the building can be renovated. Albina Shaimuratova / MT

The Moscow Times sent photographer Albina Shaimuratova and journalist Andrei Muchnik to the studios of some of Moscow's up-and-coming young artists to see how and where they work and explore some of the connections between their spaces and their art.

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