Monument to the Dream. Studio visit with Daria Surovtseva.

I arrived at Daria’s Montreuil studio on a beautiful, sunny and quiet May Sunday morning. Artist’s studio is located in a loft space at the suburb of Paris that she shares with her friend, famous Azerbaijani artist Niyaz Najafov. This place is a former children's theater building with incredible atmosphere.

Montreuil is considered as one of Paris nearest outskirt, becoming a very popular place to leave for young people, BOBO (Bourgeois -Bohême) and artists. It has a tradition of artist communities, from painter, sculptures, writers, and more recently graphic designers, architects, publishers and filmmakers.

Entering the studio, I was struck by the number of small sculptures arranged on platforms of different heights. A small constellation of microscopic particles, vaguely resembling pollen, spores, molecular system, or one-celled animals, scattered carefully throughout the room. Fore photos click here

As a child, born in Maryino (south of Moscow). Daria remembers a trip to Paris with her parents, which set her course. Then she and her brother were taken to the visit the National Sevres Museum of Ceramics and after this the secret studio of the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres - the formerly royal and imperial porcelain factory of France. Right after this experience she decided to stay in France and started to work with porcelain, as well as with paper, plexiglas, wood, plastic, and metal.

«My works are an allegory of crystal pure dream, like a coffin of princess. Therefore, I choose exatly white plastic and porcelain, it is transparent emotion, without any conflict inside. This is a quintessence of my delight. Some works bear the names Illusion № 1 or № 2, or "shadow of illusions". – Daria made a turgid speech.

Daria Surovtseva is the daughter of artists Elena and Vladimir Surovtsev. Her parents are classical sculptors, and her father courted notoriety in France after creating a bronze monument in Paris to commemorate the Russian soldiers during WW1. She graduated Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry in 2003 (Art Ceramics faculty).

“I was thick clumsy child from the school at the peripheral village Mariano. Until the moment when dad brought me to America, where he had a meeting with George Bush. And then I realized how huge this world and what opportunities are open to me. I was 12 years old.” – Daria shared.

I am not writing as a critic. I’m an art appreciator, so I can only talk about what I like. Daria Surovtceva is an artist who has championed such material as the porcelain – a delicate and fragile of course, but not an obviously commercial one. Her career built on resilience, curiosity and commitment. Every detail is handmade, never using molds or taking shortcuts, each piece is a unique result of meticulous creation.

Her biomorphic, almost abstract sculptures interact with her drawings, creating an endless dialogue on the complexities and relationship between three-dimensional and two-dimensional pieces of art. She is fascinated with structures appearing in nature and using them to communicate with her audience and play with their perceptions.

The viewer’s experience of the work is in a constant state of flux as we are invited to ponder the relationship between micro and macro, interior and exterior, illusins and reality. Upon first view, Daria’s installations appear to depict scenery such as land formations of islands or caves, landscape elements.

“In general, I like to experiment,” she says. “I’m an improvisational artist: I have a general idea of what I’m going to do—and then it goes where it goes. Paris has helped me to have a healthier creative process.”

While good, the move to Paris wasn’t easy: she had to relearn the city and find her community. “I pretty much knew one person, Niyaz, who is an artist and my ex beloved,” she says. “We managed to get this Montreuil studio for us. I started to go to events, doing things that were in my world. That made my move so easy. Here, I landed and every time I went out I met people and connected. I did a lot of studio visits and it was great. We parted with Niyaz after happy but difficult 3 years. These relationships did to us stronger and gave a double inspiration for creativity. All shake-ups and downs are significantly valuable for me. This period is reflected in my sculptures, which are always biographical.”

Paris has a gravitational pull, which makes it really hard to think you can live anywhere else. Paris has all this stuff that you never end up doing but is there for you to do: you become part of the Paris mythology. ‘How could you live anywhere else? Everything is in Paris!’ - she adds, laughing.

However her ambitions grew up very fast. She is actively working in Paris, again trying not to miss any opportunity to show her ideas and projects in London, New York etc. “Paris is not a limit of my dreams. This is only the second step, after Moscow. In Moscow my sculptures are represented in 4 museum collections (including MOMA and the State Russian Museum). In Moscow, I have achieved a lot in my years. Paris is just the next exam. Next destinations are New York, Tokyo and so on. I am going to have my personal studios in five countries (in two I already have), and to create in each country new collections for galleries and museums.”

Her work embraces impulses of the soul, mess, chance, precariousness. “Well, right now I was accepted to Biennale of Contemporary Young Art (Moscow), so I'll be doing that. Ongoing projects in the summer - Museums Night (Moscow), the Biennale of Contemporary Ceramics Vallauris (Nice-Cannes). The exhibition "Paper" with meter sculpture for the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg),r. I'm also interested in looking into creating 4 meter stainless steel sculpture "Sun-Earth" and many othe works are still up in the air. There are so many more skills to acquire right now, but I'm excited about this upcoming projects. Will keep you posted.”

Daria takes a look around her studio, gave thought on her past and present. She takes a beat: what does the future look like?

For more on Daria Surovtceva, be sure to check out the website here.