Interview
Marina Kulow
Marina Kulow was born and raised in the city of Brest, Belarus. In 2023, she emigrated with her family to Germany. By education she is a professional academic pianist. She performed with solo programs in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Germany. In parallel with her active musical activities, Marina realizes her creative potential as an artist. She developed her professional skills by attending master classes of the Brest watercolor artist Marina Lappo, as well as the famous Russian watercolorist Sergei Temerev. Starting with the classical genres of academic painting, in the process of experimenting with different materials and deep internal work, Marina came to the understanding that art as a phenomenon is united and the division into types is very conditional. Thus, since 2022, painting has become a full-fledged activity, which has led to the creation of works aimed at exploring the subjective reality of a person.
In her works, the artist also studies and reinterprets the images of world musical classics, where the main sources of inspiration are the ideas of V.Kandinsky and A.Scriabin. Marina Kulow continues to give recitals and is involved in the implementation of the Fermata Classica project, which combines a classical concert, exhibition and dialogue into a single whole. She has participated in several group exhibitions, organized three solo exhibitions and currently continues to improve her skills as an artist. Marina Kulow's works are privately owned in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Italy, England, Greece and Taiwan.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I have been involved in art all my life. But at first it was music. I am a professional pianist by education. My passion for painting came in my teens. At first it was just a hobby, but the more I painted, the more the hobby grew into a real passion. For a long time I could not finally decide who I was. As a result of long reflections on music, painting, through immersion in both types of art, I realized that art is essentially one. It expresses the same truths and images, it just does it in different ways. Sound and color are two sides of one whole. As a result, I decided to be both a musician and an artist. Through my art, I explore the boundless inner world of a person, his complex relationship with objective reality through the combination of sound and color on conceptual and emotional levels. And if at the initial stage of my creative formation, music and painting existed in my mind as two unrelated spheres, then in the process of internal transformation these concepts merged into one whole. When I play, I see graphic images, color spots and lines. The basis for my paintings are works of world classical music, they are also sources of inspiration. I have moved away from completely figurative painting and am currently exploring the possibilities of abstraction. Although, in the future I plan to combine these two types of technique, which will somehow reflect the duality of not only myself, but also in principle of human nature - objective and subjective. I work in two techniques - watercolor and oil painting. I was greatly influenced by the ideas of Vasily Kandinsky, Alexander Scriabin, as well as the work of Nicolas Lopez.”
What inspires you?
“I have several sources of inspiration. Within the framework of art, a mutually complementary principle works - when I work on a piece of music, I am inspired by painting. Especially the works of Rembrandt, Raphael, Rene Magritte, Isaac Levitan, Vrubel, etc. When I write, I am inspired by classical music. And although I am a pianist, for pleasure and new ideas I like to listen to symphonic music, especially the works of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Sibelius, etc. Outside the framework of art, I draw inspiration from books and the surrounding landscapes. I love to travel. Most of all, I am fascinated by images associated with the earth - mountains and forests.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I explore the multipolarity of the surrounding reality, the connections between the main categories of existence, because the world today is a kind of polyphony of balance and imbalance, identical and global, objective and subjective. I am interested in the topic of transformation, changing reality. Space and time are a coordinate system within which everything that exists appears, lives and transforms. Music is a temporary art that exists in space. Painting is a spatial art that exists in time. Sound and color are two facets of one whole. One complements the other. Being a musician by training and an artist by way of thinking, I search for hidden relationships, because one does not exist without the other. My main method is synthesis, searching for the edges of contact between the audible and the visible, the real and the imaginary. My object is music, its subjective interpretation and graphic embodiment. All these lines, moving in different directions, nevertheless form a complex vertical. Time loses its linearity, it becomes spatial.”
How would you describe your work?
“I would describe my work as a continuous search. My creative transformation is not yet complete, although this is hardly possible for any artist. Сombining color and sound, lines and objects, various techniques, elements of modern trends in painting and examples of academic classics in music, I explore our inner and outer world. I try to understand and accept it in all its contradictions and contrasts and invite the viewer - the listener, together with me, rise above themselves, their habitat into the spheres of higher matters, plunge into the depths of Wheeler’s ‘wormhole’ and see where we end up. The point of no return has been passed, the usual ‘today’ is lost forever, and ahead is a frighteningly uncertain, but exciting ‘tomorrow.’”
Which artists influence you most?
“I was influenced by V. Kandinsky's ideas about the connection between music and painting (in oil painting technique), as well as the work of Nicolas Lopez in watercolor.”
“I explore the multipolarity of the surrounding reality, the connections between the main categories of existence, because the world today is a kind of polyphony of balance and imbalance, identical and global, objective and subjective.”
What is your creative process like?
“When I work with oil, I first work out the images in my imagination, often while playing the piano. Sometimes I make several sketches, set the main compositional points. On the canvas, I usually make a preparatory layer, but I do not paint all the details in detail, I always leave space for improvisation and spontaneous decisions. In watercolor, everything is different. Here, this is space for pure fantasy, a silent dialogue with your own subconscious. For my work, I use one, maximum two colors. I prefer a chamber, small format.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“Art plays a huge role in human life. Through art, an artist is able to penetrate into the very essence of phenomena, bring the hidden to the surface and make it visible, accessible for understanding and experience. Art is a way for a person to understand and record the surrounding reality. Art reflects a wide variety of topics - from acutely social and socially significant to absolutely subjective. Also, art is a bottomless archive in which the casts of human thought from era to era are recorded. Esthetics, philosophies, dreams, fantasies, projections of the future, rethinking of the past, conflicts of the present. Everything is there, and the artist is an archiver. Art cannot be ‘rewritten,’ a lie in art is impossible. Therefore, a walker is always truthful in creativity, which is especially valuable. Art is an international language. With its help, a dialogue is conducted not only between different social groups, nations and generations, but also between eras. Therefore, art is almost the only opportunity for a person to overcome time. The times of long monolithic eras have long passed. We live in a rapidly changing reality, reminiscent of the movement of tectonic plates in the earth. And after this process is complete, the world will never be the same, it has already changed. But there will always be those who carefully preserve traditions and those who are at the forefront of events and largely foresee them. And all this exists in parallel. This is how it should be. And the artist, as a phenomenon, will always preserve the true past, so that people remember; analyze, explore the problems of the present within the framework of the objective and subjective, so that people understand; look into the future, so that people know where they are going.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“Among the exhibitions that are significant for me, I can highlight the upcoming one, which will take place on December 14 in the Kleinersaal of the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. The exhibition will be held in a pop-up format as part of the ‘Connections’ project. In addition to the exhibition, the project includes a classical music concert with the participation of the Collegium Musicum chamber orchestra. Together with this orchestra, I will perform Bach's concerto in D minor. The exhibition will feature works written on the basis of some of the performed compositions. This event is of great importance to me, since this is my first major project in Europe after moving from Belarus and starting my new life.”
Instagram: @m.k.artista
