Balovin, Sergey Vladimirovich

Sergey Balovin was born and raised in Voronezh, in a family of geologists. He began to study art from early childhood. The artist himself connects the beginning of his creative career with the fact that at the age of four he gave out for his drawing a kindergarten teacher left in his album. In 1996 he graduated from the School of Arts, in 2005 he defended his diploma at the Voronezh State Pedagogical University (faculty of art education). ^[3]

During his student days he taught academic drawing at the Studio I Children's School of Architecture and Design. He led an active creative activity, organized group exhibitions with the participation of young artists of Voronezh. In 2005-2010 - lecturer at the Department of Fine Arts of VSPU. ^[four]

Since 2008, he began working on joint projects with European artists. Together with the Frenchwoman Louise Morin implemented the idea of ​​a mobile exhibition in the project “Petit. Something small. ” ^{[5] [6] [7]} The project brought together several dozen artists from Russia, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Poland, China, the USA and Brazil and was represented in France, Germany, China and Russia, including the Moscow Biennale young art Who goes? ^[8] at the Red Gate Residency in Beijing and at the Art Labor Gallery in Shanghai . ^{[9] [10] [11]}

In 2009, Sergei Balovin was invited to the city of Jinan , the capital of the Chinese province of Shandong, where his personal exhibition opened. About a hundred paintings on canvas reflected the Chinese tradesman's idea of ​​contemporary Russian art: a series of deliberately beautiful landscapes in elaborate frames with gilded stucco work was a kind of parody of 19th-century Russian landscape painting. ^[12] Works from the exhibition were sold in a matter of days and the artist decided to move to China in order to improve financial well-being. But later, recognizing his dependence on consumer preferences, the artist decided to “tie with conformist pseudo-creativity” by arranging the grotesque performance “Euthanasia” dedicated to the “ Bulldozer Exhibition ”: managing a bulldozer, he crushed his works, which in his opinion were a typical example of conformism . ^[13]

In 2011-2012, the “Natural Exchange” project caused a wide resonance in the media and social networks: refusing to use money, Sergey Balovin paints portraits in exchange for any gifts. ^{[14] [15] [16] [17]}

February 1, 2013 Sergei Balovin went on a round-the-world trip “without a wallet” and for 17 months he visited 36 countries, paying with his portraits for food, overnight and travel. In 2015, traveling around Europe, Sergey Balovin met Claudia Bekkato, who agreed to become a partner in the Natural Exchange, and soon the artist’s wife. ^[18] The wedding also took place without the use of money, instead of the traditional feast, everyone was invited to the Duklei Art Center to the exhibition “Wedding. Everything is like people’s, ”where the inalienable attributes of the wedding were represented by visual works made using the collage technique. ^{[19] [20]}

1. "Voronezh artist Sergei Balovin struggles with capitalism ", TV Kultura, July 6, 2011
2. "Exchange in kind. Project by artist Sergei Balovin" , Museums News of Saint Petersburg, August 13, 2011
3. "One day in a bad apartment" , XXL, March 22, 2012
4. Sergey Balovin. Interview , Russia 24 News, 17 April 2012
5. "Portrait in exchange for juice, pie, cookies and scanword ", 48.RU, April 25, 2012
6. " Putting the art in barter ", Global Times, Shanghai, June 5, 2012
7. "Euthanasia ", IFA Gallery, Shanghai, June 30, 2012
8. "Schneider Ammann beendet Mission mit Farbtupfer ", Swissinfo, 13 July 2012
9. " Ipak se od umjetnosti živjeti može !", Ziher, March 27, 2013
10. " Piktori shëtitës, portret në këmbim të një dhurate ", MAPO, April 8, 2013
11. " " Morning ": artist Sergey Balovin ", Moscow 24, March 4, 2013
12. " Portrait without coins. Voronezh artist travels without money ", AIF, 27 3 July 2013
13. "The Ukrainian media called the famous Voronezh artist homeless ", Mine, February 15, 2013
14. " Sergey Balovin's 'In Kind Exchange': Russian Portrait Artist Lives ... ", The Huffington Post March 26, 2013
15. " Russian Artist Sergey Balovin and the In-Kind Exchange Project: How He Lives Without Money ", YAHOO !, March 28, 2013
16. " Sergey Balovin: An Artist Should Not Starve ", Arterritory, 2 August 2013
17. " Of Bulldozers and Nail Houses ", PIG China, 7 December 2012
18. " Painting portraits to sustain a lifestyle with no money ", Visual News, March 25, 2013
19. " Get the picture ", South China Morning Post, 27 June 2013
20. " Russian Artist Living on No Income ", The Echo, April 15, 2013
21. " Artista demuestra que es posible vivir y viajar sin dinero ", Mariana Tiquet, Mexico, July 18, 2014
22. " Sergey Balovin, the artist who's traveling the world without money ", Mumbai DNA, 29 June 2014
23. " Feed the artist and get your portrait made. ", Contemporary Food Lab, 2015
24. " Around the world without money: An artist travels the world for portraits ", Here and there, February 17, 2016
25. " Exchange office, Pskov Province ", Gubernia online, 11 July 2016
26. " Izložba i svadba: Neobičan projekat Sergeja Balovina u Kotoru ", Crna Gora, 13 August 2016
27. " Sour cream, cottage cheese and something primordially Pskov ", PLN, 29 June 2016
28. " Arte e coraggio di Sergey Balovin ", My Personal Mind, November 6, 2016
29. " Sergej Balovin večeras predstavlja svoj rad sarajevskoj publici ", Depo, 30 August 16
30. " Sergej Balovin gost sarajevske 'Čarlame '", Federalna TV, Sarajevo, 28 August 2016
31. " Artisti (russi) di tutto il mondo, benvenuti in Montenegro ", alfabeta2, 4 December 2016
32. “An artist from Voronezh drove half the world pennilessly and exchanged a portrait for a house in the Alps” , Mikhail Kozhukhov Travel Club, November 8, 2018

• Balovin & Beccato site of Sergey Balovin and Claudia Beccato
• Sergey Balovin in the podcast " Laovaykast "