photo by Steeve Constanty

Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko are two artists. They work with photography, documentary films and text. Since 2019 live and work together in Moldova.


Carolina was born in 1995 in Bender (Moldova). She studied art and documentary photography at the Fotografika Academy (St. Petersburg, Russia). Valentin was born in 1995 in Gornyak (Russia). He graduated from Russian State University

of Cinematography with a major in Animation and Multimedia (Moscow, Russia), also he graduated from Fotografika — the Academy of Documentary and Art Photography (St. Petersburg, Russia).


Carolina likes to experiment and to walk on the edge of the genre. The beauty of creative process is the main thing in her works. Valentin adores digging through the discovered archives and plays the detective. He scans for interesting people in the streets and writes his dreams down.

In their works they create a sacral world. They observe the disruptions in the usual order of events where the distinctions between good and evil, life and death, are sometimes blurred. In this torn world, they try to make connections through art.

They took part in international festivals and exhibitions at the Sharjah Art Foundation (United Arab Emirates), Fondation François Schneider (France), The National Museum of Art of Moldova (Moldova), Golubitskoe Art Foundation (Russia), Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation Les Rencontres d'Arles (France), National Taras Shevchenko Museum (Ukraine), Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (Russia) etc.


Winners of Contemporary Talents 10th Fondation François Schneider (France), Contemporary Photography Funding The Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation (Germany), Prix Les Nuits Photo Freelens (France) etc.


Carolina Dutca CV

Valentin Sidorenko CV

news
Twisted Lullabies
28 October – 3 November 2023
Association Maatka Phi, L1 Studios, Atelierele Malmaison
Bucharest, Romania

10 November 2023 – 15 January 2024
Matca Artspace
Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The first edition of Twisted Lullabies is a collective exhibition that will take place in 2 locations: MATCA artspace in Cluj-Napoca and in L1 Studios, Atelierele Malmaison, Maatka Phi Association in Bucharest. The project connect three countries - Romania, Moldova, Serbia - along an itinerary approached both physically and imaginatively - designed to provide research opportunities or make visible artworks based on research in a context inspired by transitions, mutations and the "continuous past" of Eastern European culture.


Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko


The Starving Artist

Voices above Water

curated by Ally Zlatar

The Ashley Lashley Foundation


The Starving Artist proudly presents voices above water; an immersive showcase that aims to bring together works of art that delve into the crucial themes of climate conservation, diversity, and preservation activism. Through thought-provoking and visually stunning creations, we seek to inspire change, foster awareness, and ignite conversations surrounding the urgent need to protect and preserve our planet's precious ecosystem.


view the exhibition

Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko

The National Museum
of Art of Moldova
Beyond Photography
9 August – 3 September 2023
curated by Tatiana Fiodorova
Chisinau, Moldova

The National Art Museum of Moldova opens the international exhibition “Beyond Photography”, dedicated to contemporary photography by Moldovan and Romanian photographers and artists. And it is a cultural dialogue that provides a unique opportunity for interaction, understanding of cultural contexts, exchange of ideas and experience between authors of different generations.


Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko


Fondation François Schneider
Contemporary Talents 10th Réceptacle
15 October 2022 – 26 March 2023
Wattwiller, France

«Réceptacle» presents the works of the 4 winners of the 10th edition of the competition, the EthnoGraphic collective, Elvia Teotski, Bianca Bondi and the Dutca-Sidorenko collective. From the multiple toponymies of the Brazilian river, to the question of cycles and fragile materials or the invention of a tale in dark water, the works proposed are astonishing in their forms as in their subject. Receptacle of stories, beliefs, materials, hidden lives and multiple names, the artists integrate water through the prism of the container as a metaphor or real object.

Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko
Sharjah Art Foundation
Vantage Point 10
16 September – 11 December 2022
Al Hamriyah Studios, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Vantage Point Sharjah (VPS) brings together many voices and lived experiences, manifesting the spirit of experimentation in lens-based image making today.
Introduced in 2013 to cultivate public engagement with photography as an artistic medium, VPS has evolved into a dynamic platform that embraces multiple approaches to photography, from photojournalism and photo essays to experimental work in both analogue and digital forms.

Photographies It’s always light under the ground, Valentin Sidorenko

Ural Industrial Biennial

of Contemporary Art

Thinking Hands, Touching Each Other
The Main Project
2 October – 5 December 2021
curated by Çağla Ilk, Assaf Kimmel, Misal Adnan Yıldız
Ekaterinburg, Russia

The Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art is one of the largest ongoing contemporary art events in Russia. The biennial was established in 2010 with the aim to analyse global changes and integrate the region into the international artistic context through contemporary art.

Photographies It’s always light under the ground, Valentin Sidorenko
Golubitskoe Art Foundation

The World is Overflowing with Either Rubbish or Our Memories

14 April – 13 June 2021

curated by Varvara Busova

Russia

Today everyone is talking about upcycling, which is rooted in secondary use and associated with the creative transformation of unnecessary objects into art (e.g. swan sculptures made of tyres, rugs weaved from candy wrappers, etc.). As part of the upcoming exhibition, we have invited artists to reflect on the local archaeological context of ancient upcycling and reuse from the ritual, economic and status standpoint. Because of the wide response of musicians, sculptors and performance artists, this scientific art exhibition has acquired additional narratives and subplots.

Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko

The Darkroom Rumour

Transposed into a film, photography becomes matter, an instantaneous memory, malleable and stretchable to infinity; manipulating this photographic memory means understanding where it comes from and what it does. Valentin Sidorenko perfectly and simply illustrates this reflection by projecting himself into his own photographic and family memory, inviting us to question our own family chain of transmission.
Alexe Liebert, artistic director Les Nuits Photo festival

watch the multimedia https://www.thedarkroomrumour.com/en/film/roots-of-the-heart-grow-together-a-photographic-film-by-valentin-sidorenko

Photographies Roots of the heart grow together, Valentin Sidorenko
Frappant Galerie
Dealing with Memory
14 August – 23 August 2020
curated by Jewgeni Roppel and Maya Hristova
organised by EEP Berlin & Ostlook Plattform

A collective exhibition on memory brought together the work of photographers from Eastern Europe, Germany, and Switzerland. 'Dealing with Memory' spotlights the construction and reconstruction of memory and history in their different forms. Collective and cultural memories are thrown under the spotlight, while political or personal identities are reinterpreted, rearranged, and reflected.

Photographies Roots of the heart grow together, Valentin Sidorenko
The Access Point
The Special Jury Prize
Spontaneous Programme
International Festival of Arts, Russia
17 April – 1 May November 2020
curated by Alexey Platunov

The Spontaneous Programme is a large online
laboratory for those whose projects got shut
down because of lockdown and who have no
idea how to move forward but want to find a way.
The participants were asked to rethink the tools
of remote information exchange from an artistic
perspective: social networks, chatbots, Skype
conferencing, spam messages and phone calls.
Included among the projects that formed the
programme were escape rooms, streams, participative
interventions and things that no term
could hope to define.

Documentary Immersive Play Renegotiation, Carolina Dutca
Twisted Lullabies
28 October – 3 November 2023
Association Maatka Phi, L1 Studios, Atelierele Malmaison
Bucharest, Romania

10 November 2023 – 15 January 2024
Matca Artspace
Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The first edition of Twisted Lullabies is a collective exhibition that will take place in 2 locations: MATCA artspace in Cluj-Napoca and in L1 Studios, Atelierele Malmaison, Maatka Phi Association in Bucharest. The project connect three countries - Romania, Moldova, Serbia - along an itinerary approached both physically and imaginatively - designed to provide research opportunities or make visible artworks based on research in a context inspired by transitions, mutations and the "continuous past" of Eastern European culture.


Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko

The Starving Artist

Voices above Water

curated by Ally Zlatar

The Ashley Lashley Foundation


The Starving Artist proudly presents voices above water; an immersive showcase that aims to bring together works of art that delve into the crucial themes of climate conservation, diversity, and preservation activism. Through thought-provoking and visually stunning creations, we seek to inspire change, foster awareness, and ignite conversations surrounding the urgent need to protect and preserve our planet's precious ecosystem.


view the exhibition

Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko

The National Museum of Art of Moldova
Beyond Photography
9 August – 3 September 2023
curated by Tatiana Fiodorova
Chisinau, Moldova

The National Art Museum of Moldova opens the international exhibition “Beyond Photography”, dedicated to contemporary photography by Moldovan and Romanian photographers and artists. And it is a cultural dialogue that provides a unique opportunity for interaction, understanding of cultural contexts, exchange of ideas and experience between authors of different generations.


Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko

Fondation François Schneider
Contemporary Talents 10th Réceptacle
15 October 2022 – 26 March 2023
Wattwiller, France

«Réceptacle» presents the works of the 4 winners of the 10th edition of the competition, the EthnoGraphic collective, Elvia Teotski, Bianca Bondi and the Dutca-Sidorenko collective. From the multiple toponymies of the Brazilian river, to the question of cycles and fragile materials or the invention of a tale in dark water, the works proposed are astonishing in their forms as in their subject. Receptacle of stories, beliefs, materials, hidden lives and multiple names, the artists integrate water through the prism of the container as a metaphor or real object.

Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko
Sharjah Art Foundation
Vantage Point 10
16 September – 11 December 2022
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Vantage Point Sharjah (VPS) brings together many voices and lived experiences, manifesting the spirit of experimentation in lens-based image making today.
Introduced in 2013 to cultivate public engagement with photography as an artistic medium, VPS has evolved into a dynamic platform that embraces multiple approaches to photography, from photojournalism and photo essays to experimental work in both analogue and digital forms.

Photographies It’s always light under the ground, Valentin Sidorenko
GRANDMAMA’S PRINT MAGAZINE #1 Inception
136 pages
Size: 21х30 cm
https://grandmamasmag.com/en/shop/3/

The first issue is dedicated to the theme "Inception," and was released in May 2021. In the magazine, you will find 5 photo projects of Russian and foreign authors, interviews with the modern artists, an article on the creation of projects, and an author's column with film contacts. There, you will find musical accompaniment in qr-code format from the independent musician NUT TAP.

Photographies It’s always light under the ground, Valentin Sidorenko

Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art

Thinking Hands, Touching Each Other
The Main Project
2 October – 5 December 2021
curated by Çağla Ilk, Assaf Kimmel, Misal Adnan Yıldız
Ekaterinburg, Russia

The Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art is one of the largest ongoing contemporary art events in Russia. The biennial was established in 2010 with the aim to analyse global changes and integrate the region into the international artistic context through contemporary art.

Photographies It’s always light under the ground, Valentin Sidorenko
Golubitskoe Art Foundation

The World is Overflowing with Either Rubbish or Our Memories

14 April – 13 June 2021

curated by Varvara Busova

Russia

Today everyone is talking about upcycling, which is rooted in secondary use and associated with the creative transformation of unnecessary objects into art (e.g. swan sculptures made of tyres, rugs weaved from candy wrappers, etc.). As part of the upcoming exhibition, we have invited artists to reflect on the local archaeological context of ancient upcycling and reuse from the ritual, economic and status standpoint. Because of the wide response of musicians, sculptors and performance artists, this scientific art exhibition has acquired additional narratives and subplots.

Photographies Apă, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko

The Darkroom Rumour

Transposed into a film, photography becomes matter, an instantaneous memory, malleable and stretchable to infinity; manipulating this photographic memory means understanding where it comes from and what it does. Valentin Sidorenko perfectly and simply illustrates this reflection by projecting himself into his own photographic and family memory, inviting us to question our own family chain of transmission.
Alexe Liebert, artistic director Les Nuits Photo festival

watch the multimedia https://www.thedarkroomrumour.com/en/film/roots-of-the-heart-grow-together-a-photographic-film-by-valentin-sidorenko

Photographies Roots of the heart grow together, Valentin Sidorenko
Frappant Galerie
Dealing with Memory
14 August – 23 August 2020
curated by Jewgeni Roppel and Maya Hristova
organised by EEP Berlin & Ostlook Plattform

A collective exhibition on memory brought together the work of photographers from Eastern Europe, Germany, and Switzerland. 'Dealing with Memory' spotlights the construction and reconstruction of memory and history in their different forms. Collective and cultural memories are thrown under the spotlight, while political or personal identities are reinterpreted, rearranged, and reflected.

Photographies Roots of the heart grow together, Valentin Sidorenko
EEP Magazine
Contemporary Photography from Eastern Europe Vol. 1
312 Pages
Edition: 1000
Size: 22,5 x 16,5 x (2) cm
https://eepberlin.org/collections/all/products/eep-vol-1

The EEP Magazine is the first photography journal dedicated solely to the little known art and photography scenes of Eastern Europe. Its focus lies in uncovering the hidden nuances, dialogues and contrasts in the works of emerging and established Eastern European visual artists and photographers. We explore the absurdity of the Eastern European experience as endured by generations of artists who continuously have reflected on issues related to abrupt societal changes, war, migration and complex family history juxtaposed against the backdrop of mutually exclusive cultural legacies and political systems.

Photographies Roots of the heart grow together, Valentin Sidorenko
The Access Point
The Special Jury Prize
Spontaneous Programme
International Festival of Arts, Russia
17 April – 1 May November 2020
curated by Alexey Platunov

The Spontaneous Programme is a large online
laboratory for those whose projects got shut
down because of lockdown and who have no
idea how to move forward but want to find a way.
The participants were asked to rethink the tools
of remote information exchange from an artistic
perspective: social networks, chatbots, Skype
conferencing, spam messages and phone calls.
Included among the projects that formed the
programme were escape rooms, streams, participative
interventions and things that no term
could hope to define.

Documentary Immersive Play Renegotiation, Carolina Dutca
dutcacarolina@gmail.com
valenkisidorenko@gmail.com