Guest of the ilb 2001 and 2007
Haralampi G. Oroschakoff was born in Sofya in 1955. He descended from a very old Russian family which was forced to emigrate to Bulgaria in 1920 after the revolution. Oroschakoff grew up in Sofya, until he and his family fled to Belgrad in 1963. In 1964 they emigrated to the West. They lived in Traiskirchen refugee camp as stateless citizens for a year. He spent his school years in Vienna. From 1979 onwards he has created drawings and has been devoted to photography, actions and installations.
A journey to the holy mountain of Athos inspires Oroschakoff in 1982 to engage in a new artistic concept ("icona-concept") which confronts Western culture with its Byzantine roots. The "double-cross images" come into being. The fact that he turns the destruction of Byzantium into an artistic theme in the installation 'Dandolo' in 1989 (exhibited at the Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, and in the Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich) provoked sharp critizism from the press. The artist is accused of "orthodox fanatism". On the commencement of his writings, symposia, lectures, he has said: "I have always used my own existence as a backdrop, my ancestral background, the very way art is viewed from within an ideological straightjacket, and felt that I was a part of all these worlds. Historic backgrounds and nowadays people’s individual socio-cultural environment require an universal language of images and shapes; in that sense the question of style has never interested me." Oroschakoff recently published "Die Battenberg-Affäre" (2007; t: The Battenberg Affair). The novel tells of the adventurous life of a Russian family amid the power struggles in the 19th century Orient. Exploring a lost era, the narrative combines history and fiction to form an epic masterpiece. Oroschakoff, the father of four children lives and works in Berlin and Théoule sur Mer.
© international literature festival berlin
Haralampi G. Oroschakoff online: www.oroschakoff.com | 
