"Zurab", 2010. Photography, digital montage.
Xenophobia, bordering on latent Nazism, is becoming one of the dominant ideologies in contemporary Russia, which cannot but trigger a painful process of identity transformations or “mutations”, forcing an individual to adapt to and to mimic the prevailing Zeitgeist. Auerbakh’s project “Zurab” is based on a real story of the artist’s friend, who moved to Russia from a republic of Abkhazia in the southern Caucasus. In order to “pass off” as a Slav this man underwent a plastic surgery and also had his first name and family names completely changed in his passport. This was the only way he could get a proper job in Russia. The first photograph presents a man with the typically “Oriental” looks, and the second one – the same person after a total make-over, which has paradoxically helped him “mutate” into someone whose looks seem to approximate to the proverbial “Slavic appearance”.
