Vladimir hofmann

One of my favorite themes is the “Inner Journey”: a small character walks inside a gigantic head - symbolizing Humanity: he questions himself about his existence and seeks answers to existential questions - ”Who we are us? ”“ Where are we from ”,” Why? “.

Another of my themes is “The train of life”: wheels are often present in my sculptures; they evoke both the passing of time and the mechanical world in which we move well in spite of ourselves.

Each of us is embarking on the train of our destiny. From this perspective, each of my sculptures is like the wagon of the great “train of life”. This series is connected with the observation of scenes from the surrounding existence. Looking around, we see that at the same time various events are taking place and that people experience different emotions, often even contradictory. Some express joy while others are subject to melancholy, some arrive, others leave ...

Here is a sculpture: wheels, rails, a platform: the wheels turn: it is the journey through time and space. Here a painter, seated on a stool, works in his studio; there, a young woman takes a shower ... Maybe she is his model? Upstairs, a young teenager is resting or contemplating the intimate scene ... A group dances, a lonely man returns home sadly, a couple loves each other ... A man looks for himself, rushes off, escapes, then suddenly his race stops and it freezes in time and space for eternity.

During my exhibitions I use projectors which, directed at the sculptures, imprint their shadows on the walls. This is what I call the “shadow play”. The shadows engage in a dialogue with the sculptures and enrich them, speak to the imagination. Sometimes the shadows, climbing the walls, are even more eloquent than the sculptures themselves! So, shadows are an integral part of my creative process.

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Collages and silhouettes

Sculpture and painting are inherently different arts. I personally feel it as such: painting allows me to express and represent what sculpture is incapable of doing. From this point of view, my paintings differ from my sculptures to the point that I never exhibit them together!

There is, however, a mode of expression which, in my opinion, links the two together and approaches both of them: it is “collage”, at least as I practice it.

Indeed, my collages use the patterns of my sculptures, but in silhouettes. They are related to painting by their two-dimensionality and color.

The idea for these collages came to me while contemplating the shadows of my sculptures on the walls In fact, they look like  imaginary sculptures in two dimensions, combined in space.

In exhibitions, they coexist in harmony and complementarity with my sculptures, the scope of which they extend.

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THROUGH THE PAGES OF THE NEWSPAPERS

At the Molbert gallery, the exhibition “Paths in time and space” opened.

“Right now, we can explore our secret Russian soul at the Molbert Gallery. There the exhibition of the Hofmann brothers, Andrei and Vladimir, French sculptors of Russian origin, opened. The exhibition is entitled “Paths in time and space”. It illustrates the destiny of Man and his journey, through sculptures of various formats. If Vladimir is more interested in real and present man, Andrei deals with his relationship with Nature and the Universe. In both cases, the artistic language of the Hofmann brothers is universal and does not require translation, neither today nor in the future ”. CHANNEL 100 TV. October 9, 2014, Latest cultural news.

Exhibition "Paths in time and space" - 9 - 26 October 2014  - Molbert Gallery, Saint-Petersburg.

“The artistic universes of the two artists are like the hemispheres of the same planet.

The sculptures of Andrei Hofmann (pseudonym Sadko) are light, allusive, as if they wanted to dematerialize in space, to blend into the universe, the secret world of shadows ...

Vladimir's sculptures are like silhouettes, graphics; they are distinguished by their particular terrestrial load. Whether in the representation of the train or the labyrinth, of lovers or of the man on the move, each sculpture carries a message: on human destiny, the meaning of life, the inevitable end, movement and 'stillness… Vladimir's sculptures swing between the word and its representation, leaving the viewer to choose from multiple associations. If Andrei's sculptures are immaterial, those of Vladimir are, on the contrary, concrete and illustrate the philosophy of real life ”

“When we talk about sculpture, we readily imagine something monumental and massive. Their sculptures, on the contrary, are light, are almost transparent. We often see the pattern of the ladders on which, braving the difficulties, climb small figures, outlines of heads, inside which also walk figures, similar to the memories of those friends and acquaintances who populate our thoughts.

The basic idea of ​​the exhibition is the “route”. Not only the journey we take in space, walking around, but also the journey inside ourselves, in search of the meaning of our existence. Route  in time -  dreams of the future, memories of the past - such as our destiny. Attempts to find an answer to the fundamental questions: where have we come from, where are we going, what is the meaning of our passage on earth? ”

Anastasia Bezgubova, member of the International Association of  АICA Art Historians

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About the MAC 2000 exhibition -.Francois Lecomte

“Vladimir HOFMANN's sculptures are an illustration of the passage of time. Each of them is like a wagon on the great train of life. The silhouettes that inhabit it are not heroes, but people who experience simple emotions, like you and me.

Some arrive, others leave; they experience various emotions at the same time, like those people walking in the street, where some are happy and others sad.

There is the painter, his models, bathers, dancers, an old man meditating, seated  on a bench, by the light of a streetlamp, a couple of lovers ... Each is a link in the human comedy.

The omnipresent wheels that carry them symbolize both the march of time and the cogs of life.

Some sculptures are less "illustrative". They evoke the march of time in a more symbolic way: man climbs a staircase, crosses a door or some obstacle, or even moves in the labyrinth of his own thoughts.

Still others represent the journey of a small figure inside a huge head symbolizing Humanity - it is a walk within oneself, in search of oneself and perhaps an answer to existential questions: where do we come from? where are we going? and why?

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