Anton Ginzburg: At the Back of the North Wind

Anton Ginzburg : At the Back of the North Wind is based on an exhibition that was presented at the 54th Venice Biennale. The book traces Ginzburg’s artistic exploration of Hyperborea, the mythical region first described by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus as the land of the Golden Age, a place thought to exist in a state of pure bliss and eternal springtime despite its supposed location in the extreme north.His journey led Ginzburg (*1974 inSt. Petersburg) through the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the faded palaces of St. Petersburg, and the gulags of Russia’s White Sea. Like a travelogue, this volume traces the various stations and includes a video featuring a red cloud of smoke, photographic documentation, a serpentine sculpture that emerged from a circle of ashes, fragments of 40,000-year-old mammoth tusks, paintings that serve as maps of the nebulous region, and marble structures that make reference to shamanic totems.