People travel to fill their lives with stories. Discovering new lands, searching for meaning and inspiration is a deep need of human nature. Dmitry Tsvetkov is not just a traveller, he is a collector of traces. The artist brought dozens of watercolour sheets from Russia, Italy and Montenegro: they depict seas, ships, airplanes and architectural fragments – a miniature archive of ‘personal touches’. His ‘fragmentary views’ become a metaphor for modern reality, its stratification and understatement.

The bottle objects were created especially for this exhibition. “I collect bottles with pieces of happiness – the fragrance of grass warmed by the sun, the sound of waves on rocks, the light on foliage and shadows from clouds. I put them on a shelf in my memory – these are moments that cannot be measured in money,” says Dmitry Tsvetkov. Each bottle bears an individual label with an image of an exotic bird and recognisable Tsvetkov characters. These ‘people’ fly, splash in blue waters, walk among ruins. Tsvetkov’s watercolours are an artistic utopia in which the body regains the right to move without sanctions. Freedom here is not an abstract concept, but a life position. In the artist’s world, bodies are spontaneous, movements are free, and belonging is determined not by nation, but by feelings.

“I leave the metropolis for a place where eagles soar in the sky and dolphins splash in the water in the morning... There are no investments, no Louvre or the word ‘simulacrum’ in those parts, instead there is something else, defined by a simple and great word – Life,” the artist reflects.

The key colour dominant of the exhibition is green. In different cultures it signifies an open path, a safety zone. For Tsvetkov this is not just aesthetics, but a visual code of freedom. And unlike real borders, this invisible line can be crossed by anyone who is ready to enter the gallery.

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Dmitry Tsvetkov was born in 1961 in Kolomna, Russia. In 1988, he graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Moscow State Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov. Immediately after graduation, from 1988 to 1991, he worked at the Monumental Painting workshop in Moscow. Between 1991 and 1993, he lived and worked in New York, where his artistic practice evolved under the influence of the Western art context. In 1996–1997, Tsvetkov worked as an illustrator for The Moscow Times, and from 1998 to 2001, he collaborated with the editorial office of Izvestia, combining journalistic experience with his own artistic research. In 2006, he was awarded a fellowship from the Joseph Brodsky Fund in Rome, and in 2010 he completed an artistic residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy. In 2007, he received the “Master” Award (initiated by the curators of the Kovcheg Gallery, Moscow) for the best solo exhibition of the year. He was shortlisted for the Kandinsky Prize three times — in 2008, 2009, and 2012.

Tsvetkov’s artistic practice is distinguished by its diversity of media. In addition to painting and graphic art, he actively employs decorative and applied techniques such as embroidery, sewing, beading, knitting, and tapestry. Clothing, accessories, toys, and everyday objects in his work are not functional items, but vehicles of meaning and material for visual expression. Among his key solo exhibitions: Wardrobes of Moscow (Museum of Moscow, 2018), Russians on the Blin (Zverev Centre, Moscow, 2019), Soft Homeland (Guangzhou, China, 2020), Showroom (Ruarts Gallery, Moscow, 2020), A Song Has Been Sung (Ruarts Gallery, Moscow, 2023).

Tsvetkov’s works are held in the collections of major art institutions such as the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and others, as well as in the Ruarts Foundation Collection and several important private collections.