Boris Savelev

In 1986, early in the years of Perestroika, then director of the Thames and Hudson publishing house Thomas Neurath travelled to Moscow in an attempt to locate “unofficial” artists. He quickly discovered Boris Savalev and published the monograph Secret City, the first book by an unofficial photographer living in the Soviet Union to be published in the West.

The publication of Secret City had a significant impact on Western society, and more specifically on Adam Lowe, founder of Factum Arte, who spent many years searching for the optimal printing process to display Savelev's work. This process culminated in the manufacture of a unique digital flatbed printer, where the color pigments were laid directly on gesso. This exhibition gathers more than 30 years of work of this exceptional artist and also shows the result of these innovative forms of digital printing.

Today, Savelev’s extraordinary photographic work has earned him a place in major international collections worldwide. Among them are the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Saarland Museum in Saarbrucken, the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, The Art Institute of Chicago, and many other major institutions and private collections.