2004. Video 9’34” Installation view: exhibition “Ukraine”, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, 2010.

This project, comprising a photographic series and a dockumentary video, was inspired by a popular spa resort in southern Russia. The artist wrote a pseudo-medical text citing fictitious scientists. The film’s editing and finale follow the conventions of the popular science TV genre. Narration was provided by the celebrated Soviet TV news presenter Igor Kirillov, lending the documentary an air of familiarity and credibility. The display could also include a diorama, A Gift to

This project, comprising a photographic series and a mockumentary video, was inspired by a popular spa resort in southern Russia. The artist wrote a pseudo-medical text citing fictitious scientists. The film’s editing and finale follow the conventions of the popular science TV genre. Narration was provided by the celebrated Soviet TV news presenter Igor Kirillov, lending the documentary an air of familiarity and credibility. 2006. Video 7'13’’

For a long time, Bratkov had wanted to create an exhibition from unrelated photographs, produced on different occasions and at different times, bringing miscellaneous visual material together in a single display. An invitation from a Belgian gallery eventually made this possible. For the artist, Belgium is associated with René Magritte, symbolism, and crime novels. Accordingly, the show included two images of fictional murders, while the rest depicted the everyday bustle. Th

This series was made in the Ukrainian city of Sharhorod, known for its historic Jewish settlement and cemetery. The artist photographed Jewish graves at sunset, when they begin to shine and create a mystical atmosphere. Installation view: Museum of Local History, Kedainiai, Lithuania, 2016. Shining. 2006. Series of 12 photographs. C-print. 52 × 40 cm

Bratkov’s video installation Vagina is My Motherland , filmed in the industrial city of Dnipro, represented Ukrainian contemporary art at the Venice Biennale in 2007. (Four years earlier, the artist had participated in the Russian Pavilion.) Metallurgy, a major Ukrainian export, was filmed as a kind of sexual act. The installation also included portraits of workers in light boxes. Installation view: Ukrainian Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2007 2007. Mixed-media installation

The video shows military helmets crashing down from above like falling autumn leaves. Wars may seem distant, yet their signs and consequences linger in the air. Installation view: exhibition “Ukraine”, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, 2010. 2007. Video 2’30”

2008. Series of 7 photographs. C-print. Dimensions variable Installation view: Galería Espacio Mínimo, Madrid, Spain, 2008

In this absorbing series, the artist depicted ostensibly separate events — a religious cross procession in the provinces and an open-air rock festival — to suggest shared forms of collective spirituality. 2008. Series of 5 photographs. C-print. 103 × 280 cm

Arguably Bratkov’s most celebrated work, the video installation Balaklava Drive was filmed in one of the bays of Sevastopol in Crimea. Premiered at Regina Gallery in 2009, the work soon brought the artist Russia’s most prestigious contemporary art award – the Innovation Prize. On encountering the installation, the visitor first sees a large screen showing a group of young men enthusiastically diving into a water reservoir, possibly in an attempt to impress nearby girls, as th

Dog-friendly show. The invitation to this exhibition in Switzerland specified that it was for visitors with dogs only. All objects were placed at dog’s-eye level and were edible or lickable: trees with real sausages, distinctive smells. The dogs were happy. The artist himself owned a dog. Installation view: Mproject 21st Century Fine Arts, Geneva, Switzerland, 2009 2009. Series of 10 mixed-media objects (C-print on wood panel). Dimensions variable.

Now, in retrospect, Bratkov’s work with the telling title Crossroad may be regarded as one of the earliest visionary premonitions in Russian art of things to come. It was also indicative of the artist’s novel methods and startling motifs, which increasingly came to dominate his aesthetic vision in the new decade. The twelve framed, red-tinted photographs — depicting typical sceneries and characters of “my Moscow” — are arranged in a montage-like manner to form the equivocal s

The rather shocking photographic series Kualnik contributed to the sense of disturbing ambivalence that Bratkov sought to capture at the time. In a shabby, tiled room with rusted pipes, bodies lie wrapped in dirty blankets. What is in reality a popular salt-bay resort near Odessa equally resembles the aftermath of violent conflict, an improvised morgue, or a similar scene.