Interview: Maxim Timofeev
Luca Curci talks with Maxim Timofeev during BODYSPACES, first appointment of CANVAS CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, in Venice.

“I’m a contemporary artist, born in 1988 in the USSR, now a resident of the United Arab Emirates. Graduated from art school, after which lost the will to paint for many years. Found me in the genre of street photography, because always gravitated towards forms of spontaneous art. That gave me an impetus to return to art and it formed my style. Have come a long way, I have returned to something that brings joy outside of the box, all social dogmas and stereotypes. My work goes beyond binary systems, shifting the focus of attention, as mine once shifted, and now I can’t help but share it. A new look at the outside has changed the perception of the inside, finding forgotten doors to the real self and leading to the question: Who am I?”

Luca Curci – How did you come to your current artistic practice?
Maxim Timofeev – Some years ago I finished art school and then painting was my hobby pretty much my whole life. Times changed so I started doing yoga, and I gave up animal products and alcohol. I went on a trip to India, where various surreal things happened to me and afterwards, I painted a series of works. By coincidence, my friends sent them to a major federal exhibit and all of these works were selected. Gradually I became bolder and came to art as my main activity.

LC – What do you think about while painting? Do you have any habits or rituals while working?
MT – I don’t think about anything when I’m painting, the vast majority of the time I don’t even know what I’m going to get. I just get the urge and I start. That’s why most of my works are in electronic form because I always have my iPad with me. If I am painting on canvas or creating a sculpture or an installation I always switch on music, I used to have a vinyl record player in my studio and while I am painting I dance, dance a lot…

LC – Has your style changed over the years? In what way?
MT – I am constantly experimenting, looking for something new and I am happy when I find it. I write a series of works, then I thank for the experience that I have while creating it and go for something new.

LC – What kind of art topics do you deal with? What is your preferred theme, if any?
MT – There is no theme, I don’t prefer anything. Everything comes by itself and that is how my texts are born. From space, from the ether, I just write it down, like the paintings are just written by my hand, but where it comes from I don’t know.

LC – How do you choose your themes? Is it a deliberate or instinctive process?
MT – Sometimes it comes in my dreams and other times the painting itself prompts me, I know for a fact that I never think about it on purpose.

LC – How are the works in our exhibition related to the theme of the exhibition?
MT – What is us? What is our body? Is it limited to the physical body? Maybe we are part of everything and our space is infinite. Are the people and situations we encounter as much a part of us as our body?

LC – Can you explain anything about the works in our exhibition?
MT – I’m pasting the title of the work and the description of the series here: “You’ve known him all your life, seeing him for the first time.” “How often do we meet people who stay with us? Have there been past lives? Are there souls that walk the path with us together? When you see some people for the first time, there is a feeling that you knew them long before. Recently, this feeling has not deceived me, and when I see a close person for the first time, I know it for sure. Perhaps we live in such a time of logic and evidence that we have completely forgotten about feelings, about faith, about what is above ourselves. People consider themselves all-powerful, relying only on one aspect of life that we can measure, without noticing how we are trapped in our own achievements. Of course, I am no exception, and I am just coming out of there, looking around and seeing the world a little wider. Gaining the courage to trust my feelings, and the world around me has begun to transform. People I walk with have begun to meet more often, and we are moving on in parallel. Trust in the universe, in the supreme, changes our life, showing new facets of it, It’s as if you wake up from a long sleep and there is no way back.