Dmitruk dolls. Galina Dmitruk: “my dolls are living female images, slightly hidden from prying eyes...” - interview

17.02.2022

Interview of the Information and Analytical Online Newspaper website with the famous designer doll maker from Belarus, a permanent participant of the Baku International Biennale of Dolls “Fusion doll” Galina Dmitruk, whose dolls are in private collections in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the USA, Azerbaijan and other countries of the world.

— Dolls are different. If we talk about the material component, the price range is very wide. It all depends on the name of the author, the material from which the doll is made... I’m sure there are works in the world that are very democratic in this sense. But I am more pleased with the idea that truly worthy dolls are a luxury that only sensitive, deep people with exceptional taste can afford. I'm a little on the other side. I don't own my dolls. They tend to find new owners very quickly, but I have the pleasure of creating them. My dolls are an integral part of my life, which brings me great pleasure.

— Let's move directly to your style. Your works combine “glamour”, “fashion”, “beauty” and “freedom”. How did you come to this style?

- IN different periods In my creativity, I was “touched” by different things. At a younger age - fashion, then - relationships between people, some acute, deeply psychological moments. With the advent of my son, I began to look at the world in a more positive way and see, first of all, beauty. Of course, I honestly and openly brought and bring all my attitude to reality into the dolls. With age, my works have become softer, the shockingness, hysteria and acute drama have disappeared. Now I seem to be floating in the air, enjoying the process of working on a smooth sculpture female body, by creating an exclusively feminine image both in form and in essence, by embroidery... When something radically changes in my life, the viewer will immediately feel it in my works.

— Would you like to create a series of works in the classical style?

- It seems to me that I have such work. For example, Last year I created only boudoir dolls in marshmallow-vanilla lace dresses. Yes, they have my faces, anatomy, my recognizable handwriting. However, in terms of style, manufacturing technology, method of attaching body parts and costume, they can be called classic.

— You often create nude dolls, tell us why you are attracted to the nude genre? Perhaps, under nudity you want to show feelings and emotions that cannot be hidden. What do you think of it?

- Yes you are right. The goal is not so much to draw attention to the naked body as to personify the doll, to endow it with human qualities and emotions. Detailed sculpture is just a tool that allows me to do this, nothing more. I cannot imagine a detailed image of a touching Lady with a lively look, in a beautiful translucent outfit, without paying attention to the sculpture of the body. The slightest exposure of the shoulders and chest, small folds of the body, and alluring female forms always conceal the majority of the image. My dolls are not mannequins, tightly dressed in brocade and satin... My dolls are living female images, only slightly covered from prying eyes with translucent materials...

— Some experts classify the genre in which you work as erotic. Do you have to deal with misunderstandings and criticism?

— (Laughs) Fortunately, I don’t know these “specialists” personally. Everyone sees what they want to see. I always make it very clear what concept I am putting into the next collection. The main leitmotifs, as a rule, are love, sensuality, calm tenderness or, conversely, acute drama (depending on the mood of the entire collection). I don't show any specific female body parts. I simply create women the way I see them. Believe me, the viewer who looks at the doll through my eyes will understand much more... And regarding the question of eroticism... So it is in every woman. And especially in an attractive one...

— In one of your interviews, you noted that your dolls were perceived more democratically abroad than in Belarus. Why do you think the Belarusian audience is so skeptical about your works?

— I can’t say that Belarusians are skeptical. Now the Belarusian public knows me and many even love my dolls. For some reason it just happened that I received recognition and support from other countries. In this sense, I am incredibly grateful to Azerbaijan, because my exhibition activities in your country had very warm ministerial support and assistance. At the very beginning of my creativity, I was greatly supported and continues to be supported by a large and well-known Belgian company producing goods for artists, whose materials I have been consistently using for about 10 years. My dolls, for the most part, are owned by collectors in Europe and Russia. I hope that in the future I, as an artist, will also be in demand in my country.

— Share your impressions of your personal exhibition “Night Tale” in Baku? Besides this, what impression did Baku and its inhabitants make on you, since this is not the first time you have visited us and you have already made Azerbaijani friends?

— I come to Baku as if it were my hometown. Of course, first of all, I'm talking about people. I always go with great warmth, first of all, not to the next exhibition, but to the Museum Center to see its director Liana Vezirova, to the Art Doll gallery, to my friend the artist, designer doll maker Farah Aliyeva and her family. Baku is always in my heart, and my personal exhibition “Bedtime Stories” was wonderful and sincere. When I plan new projects, Azerbaijan is always one of the first places on the list where I would like to exhibit again.

—Have you thought about creating a collection of representative dolls? different nations world, including racial features?

— Thank you, I’ll think about your idea (smiles). In fact, in addition to Slavic ones, I often sculpt Asian, Oriental, Greek and Negroid facial features on my dolls. True, I dress them either in fantastic outfits, or in accordance with modern fashion trends. But it is, of course, very interesting to try to work on the national costumes of different countries.

— It’s not difficult to notice that many of your dolls look like you. What about the inner world of your heroines? Do they bear any resemblance to you?

- Certainly. They are my inner world. How else? An artist must be honest and show exactly what is in his soul. I can see the shape of the nose and the shape of the eyes in the model’s face, and the inner world can only be put in together with my own soul.

— Why do you create exclusively representatives of the fair half of humanity? Would you like to restore the gender balance by making a male doll?

- The reason is my fundamental in different ways to men and women. Women are completely understandable to me. It’s easy for me to transfer certain female traits and character into doll sculpture. I can admire and admire women. But with men everything is different. As a rule, if this is admiration, it is so strong that, as a rule, it cannot be expressed either in sculpture or in words. In the entire history of my work, I can count no more than 10 male dolls, and this despite the fact that I have created more than two hundred works in total (laughs).

— Galina, is it important for you to know who buys your work?

- Yes, this is very important for me. I want a doll made by my hands and with a piece of my soul to live with good people. If you ask another doll artist this same question, he will give you a similar answer. If an artist creates sincerely and does not adapt to market conditions, the fate of his own creation is always important to him.

— You exhibited in different countries. Tell me, in which country did you remember the exhibition, for example, for the best organization, the best atmosphere, or did you not like it at all?

- Fortunately, I always like everything. The most cordial and warm welcome and excellent organization are always at the puppet biennale in Baku. This is the honest truth and many of my colleagues will agree with me. I really love the exhibition Salon of Dolls on Tishinka (Russia) and our Belarusian exhibition Panna DOLL. It is relatively young, but the organizers always work at a high level.

— Puppetry is a rather expensive activity. How much do the costs of materials, etc. pay for themselves?

- Hard to tell. The more dolls you create and sell, the more you have to spend on exhibitions and materials. The more successful an artist is, the more he wants to create and implement various projects. And this always entails even greater expenses. But overall, I’m not complaining and I’m grateful to fate that I’m doing what I love and can live from my creativity.

— Tell us about your latest series of works. What is it dedicated to?

— Throughout 2017 I have been creating boudoir dolls. Their mission is quite simple and understandable to many - to sit beautifully in the interior and delight the owners of the house. As soon as I finish the last 12th doll, I will most likely close the collection and publish a beautiful colorful catalog.

And in this moment I'm working on a model for a polyurethane doll. This will be a play boudoir doll with a half textile body. The beloved proportions and faces of the dolls are preserved in them. Such changes in creativity will allow me to create dolls much faster and reduce the queue of people wanting to purchase them.

— They say that creativity is the self-expression of the author. In this regard, I would like to know the following, what do you want to tell people with your creativity? What to convey to the viewer?

— Each collection, and even more so, each specific doll, has its own idea. And sometimes there are even several of them. Therefore, with all my creativity, I tirelessly talk to the viewer... about everything in the world... But, perhaps, all my characters are united by one great desire - to love and be loved, to understand and be understood. And also a huge faith that everything will certainly be good or even better.

— Galina, thank you very much for an interesting and informative conversation. We wish you good luck, new exhibitions and are always glad to see you in Baku.

- Thank you, Rustam! Thank you for your interest in my work.

Photos courtesy of Galina Dmitruk

Rustam Gasimov

— Let's move directly to your style. Your works combine “glamour”, “fashion”, “beauty” and “freedom”. How did you come to this style?

— At different periods of my creativity, different things “touched” me. At a younger age - fashion, then - relationships between people, some acute, deeply psychological moments. With the advent of my son, I began to look at the world in a more positive way and see, first of all, beauty. Of course, I honestly and openly brought and bring all my attitude to reality into the dolls. With age, my works have become softer, the shockingness, hysteria and acute drama have disappeared. Now I seem to be floating in the air, enjoying the process of working on a smooth sculpture of the female body, creating an exclusively feminine image in both form and essence, embroidery... When something radically changes in my life, the viewer will immediately feel it in my works.

— Would you like to create a series of works in the classical style?

- It seems to me that I have such jobs. For example, for the last year I have only created boudoir dolls in marshmallow and vanilla lace dresses. Yes, they have my faces, anatomy, my recognizable handwriting. However, in terms of style, manufacturing technology, method of attaching body parts and costume, they can be called classic.

— You often create nude dolls, tell us why you are attracted to the nude genre? Perhaps, under nudity you want to show feelings and emotions that cannot be hidden. What do you think of it?

— Some experts classify the genre in which you work as erotic. Do you have to deal with misunderstandings and criticism?

— In one of your interviews, you noted that your dolls were perceived more democratically abroad than in Belarus. Why do you think the Belarusian audience is so skeptical about your works?

— Have you thought about creating a collection of dolls representing different nations of the world, including racial features?

— It’s not difficult to notice that many of your dolls look like you. What about the inner world of your heroines? Do they bear any resemblance to you?

— Why do you create exclusively representatives of the fair half of humanity? Would you like to restore the gender balance by making a male doll?

— The reason is my radically different attitude towards men and women. Women are completely understandable to me. It’s easy for me to transfer certain female traits and character into doll sculpture. I can admire and admire women. But with men everything is different. As a rule, if this is admiration, it is so strong that, as a rule, it cannot be expressed either in sculpture or in words. In the entire history of my work, I can count no more than 10 male dolls, and this despite the fact that I have created more than two hundred works in total (laughs).

— Galina, is it important for you to know who buys your work?

— You have exhibited in different countries. Tell me, in which country did you remember the exhibition, for example, for the best organization, the best atmosphere, or did you not like it at all?

— Puppetry is a rather expensive activity. How much do the costs of materials, etc. pay for themselves?

— Tell us about your latest series of works. What is it dedicated to?

And at the moment I am working on a model for a polyurethane doll. This will be a play boudoir doll with a half textile body. The beloved proportions and faces of the dolls are preserved in them. Such changes in creativity will allow me to create dolls much faster and reduce the queue of people wanting to purchase them.

— Galina, thank you very much for an interesting and informative conversation. We wish you good luck, new exhibitions and are always glad to see you in Baku.

- Thank you, Rustam! Thank you for your interest in my work.

Photos courtesy of Galina Dmitruk

Rustam Gasimov

You can give people moments of happiness in completely different ways. And it’s much more enjoyable if you yourself get incredible pleasure from it. Galina Dmitruk, one of the few masters of designer interior dolls in Belarus, has found her own way to make this world more beautiful.

Doll design in Belarus began to develop relatively recently - about four years ago. Galina, despite her young age (today the girl is only 25) and her specialty as a journalist, is one of the masters at the origins of this art in our country.

Since 2007, Galina has taken part in more than 15 international exhibitions. She has about 60 works, but most of them can only be seen in photographs - almost all of them have gone to different parts of the world, to private collections of connoisseurs.

The most intriguing thing is that her creations are by no means classic porcelain beauties with golden curls and an empty smile, but Gothic aristocrats and mystical witches, a little frightening with the power of their image, but undoubtedly enchanting.
Galina told us about the “birth” of unusual dolls and the process of their creation.

- Galina, at the age of 25, you have already worked as a journalist on a republican television channel, as a teacher of the Belarusian language and literature at school. However, I found myself in something completely different...

- Yes, I am a very active person. No one knows how long he is destined for, so sometimes it seems to me that even if I have 80 years left, this is still very little to do everything.

Inner comfort is the most important thing for me today. Previously, I had to do a lot with the feeling that this was what my parents, employers, and society expected of me. But after the birth of my baby (Mark is one year old), I felt inner confidence. Finally managed to set my priorities correctly. After all, you can’t escape yourself - you want to do something in which you can be unique.

It may sound a little naive, but from the very early childhood I was constantly drawing and making something with my own hands. At a more conscious age, I began altering clothes. In parallel with this, dolls have always been one of the favorite “entertainment”. In them, all my creative abilities somehow came together very logically: the ability to sew, the vision of unconventional styles, the sense of color and texture. Moreover, no other activity brings me so much satisfaction and a sense of harmony.

- How was your first doll “born”?

- Probably everything comes from childhood. I was such a mischief (laughs) - always closer to the “dark” character. And to this day I am simply torn by this image. There is something wildly attractive and alive about him. However, not all of my works are so capricious. There is the same romantic girl, waiting for her prince on a white horse, and a naive fool with red curls. Among them there was even a place for an old maid with a sizzling look.

- Your work was completed in individual style, the only one of its kind both in Belarus and, perhaps, in all of Europe. How would you characterize him?

- I would call this style distorted realism. Yes, don’t be surprised, it’s still realism, because I really like natural beauty and naturalness. At the same time, I greatly distort this beauty towards hypertrophy. If I see an element in a woman’s appearance or image that admires me, I will certainly greatly magnify it and exaggerate it. If these are thin legs, then they will definitely have very long ones. Expressive eyes- incredibly large.

The images, the costumes... we can’t say that this is gothic in its traditional sense, but rather interpreted by my perception.

- When a master creates a doll, he, figuratively speaking, breathes life into it. In many religions, it was previously completely prohibited to depict human figures. Do you believe in the “magic” of dolls?

- Author's dolls are alive. And, of course, I believe in their magic.
There was a case when I made a doll for my teacher, who always dreamed of dancing. The porcelain dancer with lowered legs turned out to be a smaller copy of her. But the doll's legs kept breaking. Imagine my surprise when I met a teacher with a stick after a fracture. That job was never given to her. I still can't decide to sell the doll.

And I can tell such incredible cases about almost every doll I own.

- Some craftsmen sew a heart into a doll to make it come to life. How do you breathe life into your characters?

- Eyes! For me this is the key point in the doll. In my works they are getting bigger and bigger. He looked into the eyes, made contact... and warmth began to flow into his heart. Only then do you notice that the doll has thin fingers, that she is holding something in her hands, and so on. I believe that a doll can somehow interact with this world through its eyes.

Another significant point is that the outfits and images of all my dolls have vintage elements. I use antique items all the time. Whether it’s my husband’s mother’s veil, which her mother, in turn, sent her from Argentina about 50 years ago, or a small coin from the times of Tsarist Russia.

Just feel it: it seems like an ordinary piece of rag, but how many human destinies “she has seen.” After all, this veil was treated in a certain way, carefully preserved, since it reached me after so many years. It's better than any heart or spell! It is “alive”, with its own incredible history.

- A doll is a synthesis of sculpture, art, design, the skills of a hairdresser, shoemaker, tailor... So how long does it take to create it?

- About three weeks. My dolls are of completely different sizes: from thirty-five centimeters to a meter and even more. Labor-intensive work!

First, a mold is made from plaster, into which porcelain is poured a little later. When the material has dried but not yet hardened, I begin making adjustments: I make the shape of the eyes, the shape of the lips and eyebrows, and create the mood of the heroine. Then I start sanding the parts and creating the frame. I especially like the costume creation stage. You sew on the last pebble - and here it is, the moment of truth! The feeling of joy that your mission as an artist has been completed and now you can “let go” of the doll is incomparable to anything. Even though I put a lot into my dolls, I am learning to let them go with ease. And, of course, I try to constantly keep in touch with those who purchased them. I even have a dream to visit all the countries where my dolls have moved.

- What is the most important thing for you when you “release your brainchild into the world”?

- So that a person appreciates and understands the doll. Many of the people who purchased works from me even decorated their rooms specifically for them.

I believe that somehow a doll can influence a person. Even if you got up in the morning, looked at her and simply smiled - this is already a charge of positivity that you carry within yourself and give to the people, family, and colleagues you meet along the way. This, in turn, also lifted their spirits. And off it went... Like a path of dominoes! All this can be compared to the effect of a butterfly flapping its wing, which can cause a tsunami on another continent.

Yes, these are the utopian thoughts that guide me when I create! (laughs)

"Dolls are very personal, they are actually naked me...".

Galina Dmitruk is a well-known master of designer interior dolls in Belarus and abroad. The artist’s works were exhibited at international and national exhibitions in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Spain. Galina's dolls are the face of the company "The Clay and Paint Factory" (Belgium) and the popular brand of sculptural material "Darwi". Over the course of seven years, the author created about one hundred works. The artist's works are in private collections in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic and the USA.

“I am a journalist by profession, a philologist by education, a teacher of the Belarusian language and literature,” said the artist. “But at some point I realized that my hands needed to work with sculptural material. And this has been my profession for seven years now.”

According to Dmitruk, she brings into her works a lot of mystical and irrational, what she experiences inside. “My work is an exaggeration of colors, grotesque, I look for something real in human feelings, in relationships and convey it in dolls. But whether it turns out to be gothic, surrealism or modernism, I cannot explain,”

"I want to continue to develop as an artist, I want to continue to exhibit, I want to continue to show my work where they want to see me. Fortunately, for me the issue of money is not an acute issue. My work is initially non-commercial. You have to be completely crazy to count on I hope that they will buy my “such” doll, that they can live on it. The work I do is so incompatible with any framework that it does not fit into the framework of classic dolls for sale.

Endless red line

golden antelope

Red room

Room overlooking the rose garden

Room with a secret door

"Naked does not mean depraved, naked means defenseless, exposed... like a nerve!"

Unfortunately, many viewers do not go further than individual external details. It's a pity. By the way, intimus from Latin means not vulgar and pornographic, but internal, personal, deep. In each of my dolls, if you don’t stare, but look closely, you can see so many symbols, so many little things - every millimeter is explained there, every millimeter of the doll, every millimeter of the space around it.

For example, this work, where a doll is covered in cheese with a mousetrap on its finger, is a person mired in his own desires, their hostage. You need to look and read there. But most viewers don't even think about it.

Yellow room

Or, for example, “The Red Room”, where everyone sees a girl in a peignoir with bunny ears. The images that playboy magazine suggests to us. In fact, this work is about how you are exposed, your skin is removed, your skin is removed for the sake of fashion. In the eyes of this girl, locked in a cage-box, squeezed into a corner, there are feelings not of a player, but of a toy. But they don’t notice this right away, they don’t want to see it. They look at the proportions, the length of the legs, lips, eyes, chest. But every doll has a story - a complicated story, a complex story. The viewer, having quickly examined the doll, should stop and think: “The author wanted to tell everyone something with this, for some reason he made it...”.

Red room

Green room

Black room

Room for two sisters

- I saw my first doll in a dream. When I woke up, I found some piece of wood and intuitively, without any special skills, I cut out the head, arms and legs. The professional stage of creativity began a little later. - Probably everything comes from childhood. I was such a mischief (laughs) - always closer to the “dark” character. And to this day I am simply torn by this image. There is something wildly attractive and alive about him. However, not all of my works are so capricious. There is the same romantic girl, waiting for her prince on a white horse, and a naive fool with red curls. Among them there was even a place for an old maid with a sizzling look.

interior doll artist Galina Dmitruk creates unique and extraordinary female images. An exhibition of her works entitled “Lux interior” is held at the Museum of Modern visual arts.

According to the author, these are not just dolls - these are doll-paintings, revealing the duality of the concepts of freedom, fashion and beauty, which look at us from the twilight of the compositions with eyes full of inner light. At the same time, Galina completely rejects the concept of “fashion” in relation to her dolls.

She also said that, oddly enough, men inspire her to create images. “They often tell me: “Galya, your dolls are so similar to you!”, but my main muse is my husband, and all my dolls look like him! He sees me all the time: in a dirty shirt, among scattered brushes and paints... But I don’t think about it. It seems to me that I live a completely different life, not like other people, I am always in my fantasies. I want to believe that my fantasies will change the world for the better,” Galina noted.To those who came here, I want to say that these dolls have nothing to do with either feminine grace or modeling business“absolutely nothing,” the artist noted. And when asked why all her dolls turn out so gloomy, Galina Dmitruk said: “These are not evil, not black, not dramatic works. They're just complicated. If you understand this, your reward will be catharsis, I promise you that.”

Galina Dmitruk's tricks(the ones I saw) are quite large, about a meter tall, and completely alive. Her works inspired me to try to work with plastic arts, of course this is far from her work, but this is my experience, but that’s not what I’m talking about now.
So I won’t torment you any longer, I think there won’t be anyone indifferent, these girls are unique...

Recently I was lucky enough to meet and chat with a wonderful author of dolls, Galina Dmitruk.

She creates stunning designer interior dolls.

— Tell us a little about yourself

— I don’t like to talk about myself. If I could express my thoughts and feelings eloquently enough, I would write poetry, novels, memoirs... But my entire story about myself can only be read in my works: in the broken lines of poses, fingers elongated to infinity, wet eyes. In my dolls I convey almost everything that is happening in my life at the moment.
I live and work in Belarus. In different cities. I don’t have a specific fixed place, a workshop. My workshop is in my head.

— Where did you start and how did you come to dolls?

— Creativity has always been in my life. Drawing, sculpture, all kinds of decorative and applied arts, photography. Unfortunately, as a child I did not show perseverance and did not receive an art education. After all, my parents wanted their daughter to get a “serious profession.” By education I am a philologist and journalist. Probably, if my craving for art had not been so strong, I would still have worked as a correspondent for one of the Belarusian channels... But everything turned out differently. At the age of 22, I found the courage to give up almost everything I had and devote myself exclusively to creativity.

— What materials do you work with and why did you choose these materials?

— My first doll was made of wood. Then the stage of modeling from sculptural plasticine and pharmaceutical preparation began. At first I made dolls from plaster, then from porcelain. Now I have chosen the best option for myself - modeling from scratch from self-hardening clay. When you sculpt a new doll without using ready-made molds, you are constantly improving your sculpture. This is the most important thing for me now - to constantly improve my professional level and skills. Moreover, now the director of the company that produces my favorite and self-hardening clay is my good friend and collector. And I have the opportunity not only to admire the photo of my doll on each pack of darwi roc, but also to participate with advice in improving the formula of the material.

— What inspires you?

— Almost everything inspires me. Mostly, of course, people. More precisely, the emotions that these people are able to evoke. Despite the established style, my dolls are very different. From incredibly beautiful to scary and frightening. The thing is that my life is very multifaceted and contradictory.

— Tell us a little about your dolls, how are the images born? Is a sketch created and how long does the process take from drawing to the finished doll?

— Dolls are constantly born in my head. You know, it’s not just “shouldn’t I make a girl in a blue dress?...” usually these are complex and chaotic experiences, reasoning... I don’t draw a sketch, there’s no thought in my work from the beginning. I just start working on the next doll and gradually endow it with symbols, meanings... Coloristic and compositional decisions come already in the process.

— Who creates wigs, clothes, accessories for your works?

“The whole doll, every millimeter of it, is just my work.” It should always be this way. Otherwise, the doll could not rightfully be called the author's.

- Do you make dolls to order?

— I don’t make dolls to order. For a very long time already. I do not initially pursue a commercial goal in my work. For me it is important to convey to the viewer a thought, an idea, an image, and not to please someone and get money for it.

- Do you have any other hobbies besides dolls?

- I have Small child, family. Considering that I work on dolls 14 hours a day, there is no time left for anything else.

- My latest collection called high heels. The premiere took place at the “Doll Art” exhibition in December. This collection is a reflection on women constantly balancing between beauty that will save the world and beauty that requires sacrifice. High heels are a metaphor. This is the 16-centimeter pedestal on which a woman erects herself. At the same time, the hairpin puts a woman in a dual position: at the same time it is strength, resilience, independence, firmness, but at the same time fragility, instability, precariousness of the position. Dress high heels is always a female challenge to society. And few can cope with the role of a woman on a pedestal.

— Do you give master classes?

- I don't give them.
Occasionally, twice a year, I hold a master show at the request of the company that produces Darvy rock.
I held such master shows in Frankfurt, Singapore, Yalta, Moscow. They are free and usually attract a lot of people.

We wish Galina creative success, of course, inspiration and many new collections!

20 photos

Her paintings reveal the duality of the concepts of “fashion”, “beauty” and “freedom”. Master of designer interior dolls Galina Dmitruk strives to destroy the usual idea of puppetry by mixing forms, rethinking classic images and reflecting different states of the soul. “My dolls have nothing to do with the fashion industry. I do not promote eroticism or anorexic proportions as an image female beauty. In general, men inspire me to create these works. After all, it's not a matter of external forms, and in emotions: love, compassion, great happiness,”- Galina explains.

Nevertheless, organizing an exhibition of such explicit works in Minsk is quite difficult: “Many paintings are covered. This nudity is perceived as eroticism, pornography, as shocking. But my nakedness is a revelation, defenselessness, an exposed nerve,- says the artist. — I don't want to sew pleats on dresses. It's much more interesting to show human body, work with forms, with muscles, with movement. That’s why my dolls are often more undressed than dressed.”

However, Galina invites the viewer not to divide the dolls into components, looking at the legs, lips or eyes. It is better to peer into the symbols, deep into the picture. "This is a mouse caught in a mousetrap,- our heroine explains. — She is made like a mechanical mouse, like a toy that has become a victim of its own desires. For example, a victim of gluttony.”

But this witch is brewing a potion. “She welds her hair in there. You can't wish harm on anyone,- Galina is sure. — When you make a potion for someone, you brew it yourself, and then you suffer from it.”

One of the artist’s favorite works is a doll in a torn rabbit skin. A kind of alter ego of Galina: “This is not Playboy, not a bunny with ears in a beautiful red peignoir. This is a man who has had his own skin torn off for the sake of fashion. The Red Room is very close to my heart. It’s not the dolls who are naked, but me who is naked in front of the viewer. I often feel this way. It’s like something is being ripped off me.”

IN Everyday life Galina is a very energetic and cheerful person. We asked why all her dolls were so sad.

“I'm afraid of clowns. It seems to me that a frozen smile is hypocrisy. Almost every doll I have has a little tear. After all, crying is a very pure emotion. You can cry from happiness, from grief, from nostalgic memories, from good music,- says the master. — At the same time, it is not necessary to smile a wide smile or curl your lips in a tragic line. Sometimes catharsis occurs and you cry because you finally understand the meaning of this life.”

“The Snail and Its Ideal Home” is the work that started the idea of rooms and spaces. “We should not disturb others by creating our own space. Everyone should be comfortable. This work is an appeal to people who think that I am depressed and doing some gloomy devils,- explains the heroine. — No, I see everything in bright, contrasting colors. Black for me does not symbolize mourning. Black is a canvas on which any falsity, lie, any flaw is visible.”

Over the seven years of her work, Galina made about a hundred dolls. It takes at least two months to create one character. There are currently six more figures in the works. “I want my dolls to live not 2-3 years, but to remain after me for 50 or even 100 years,— the artist says, smiling. — That's why I make them from expensive fittings and very high-quality antique fabrics. I buy my eyes in Germany. But my paintings are not decorative things. This is a form in which very deep content is embedded: my attitude towards people, towards the world, towards beauty. This is my life".

Galina's dolls can be seen more often at exhibitions abroad than in Belarus. Her works are eagerly purchased by collectors from Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and the USA. “I don’t want to exhibit my work where the public will laugh or cringe,- says the master. — You shouldn’t irritate someone once again or impose something you don’t like. I think the Belarusian viewer must educate himself. But I need to develop, go somewhere, show off my doll paintings.”

We often have to deal with misunderstanding and condemnation from Belarusians: “Often, something new is perceived by the Belarusian audience very skeptically. And they begin to accept and understand only after it is praised in Europe. Why is it so difficult for our viewers to understand

Exhibition by Galina Dmitruk “LUX INTERIOR”

Galina Dmitruk's works evoke indelible impressions. However you canmake sure of this With ami, the exhibition will last until March 30 (Independence 47, small hall of the Museum of Contemporary Fine Arts).

In the small hall of the Museum of Contemporary Fine Arts on the evening of March 19, there was literally nowhere for an apple to fall. Minsk residents flocked to the opening of the exhibition of interior doll master Galina Dmitruk Lux interior, which translated from Latin means “inner light”. Galina's dolls are not as simple as they may seem at first glance. Both young and old came to see this, despite the age limit of “18+” for exhibition visitors.

Galina rarely exhibits her amazing works in Belarus: once, maximum twice a year. Therefore, people who came to the opening of the daring, provocative exhibition surrounded the author with a dense wall and bombarded him with questions: “Why are the dolls so gloomy?”, “Don’t you think they are creepy?”, “What did you want to say with this doll?”, What are they made of? do you make them?”, “How do dolls influence your life?”... Galina, with a smile on her face, calmly and thoroughly answered all the questions, tirelessly repeating that there is nothing demonic or bloody in her works.

“These are not just dolls - these are doll-paintings that reveal the duality of the concepts of “freedom”, “fashion” and “beauty”, which look at us from the twilight of the compositions with eyes full of inner light. The interior is rethought by Galina Dmitruk as an internal space. And the dolls become not only part of the interior - they contain their own internal space, filled with opposite emotions", the curators tell those who come to the exhibition. But Galina herself completely rejects the concept of “fashion” in relation to her dolls: "To those who came here, I want to say that these dolls have nothing to do with either feminine grace or the modeling business— absolutely nothing".

“And the author of these dolls is so sweet! Strange...”- a remark was heard in the crowd, dropped by a young girl who was diligently filming the dolls on her phone. However, she was not the only one who was surprised that Galina Dmitruk — a very sweet, sociable and cheerful girl who talks about her serious creativity while laughing. Many, having become acquainted with the exhibition, expected to see a silent woman with a stern stamp of multi-talking suffering on her face.

"I don't like talking about dolls at all.— I'm better at making them, Galina shares with visitors to the exhibition. — My husband is of the same opinion. In general, I did not plan to hold an exhibition in Belarus. Those people who know me will confirm that I am a very sincere, honest and ambitious person. If I see that the public does not understand me, I will not go to them. It turns out that it’s not easy for me to find contact with the Belarusian audience, although there are a lot of amazing, kind and smart people and I have the kindest messages. But I see that so many of you came, which means there are people who are interested in this".

“You see that most of the images here are female, but, oddly enough, I was inspired to create them by men. People often tell me: “Galya, your dolls look so much like you!”, but my main muse— my husband and all my dolls look like him! He sees me all the time: in a dirty shirt, among scattered brushes and paints... But I don’t think about it. It seems to me that I live a completely different life, not like other people, I am always in my fantasies. I want to believe that my fantasies will change the world for the better..."

"These are not evil, not black, not dramatic works. They are just complex, explains Galina. — If you understand this, then your reward for this will be catharsis— I promise you that!"

A famous Belarusian artist came to congratulate Galina Dmitruk on her personal exhibition Anna Silivonchik. She shared with Naviny.by impressions of Galina’s complex works: “I am attracted and admired by the fact that Galya, as an artist, is very organic in her work. What we see in her works are, for sure, self-portraits of the artist, some of her states and moods, and vice versa - looking at Galya, you immediately imagine her dolls. This indicates that the artist is real, honest, and does not lie in his work, and this is worth a lot.

Of course, the European viewer is more prepared for something so non-standard and, perhaps, provocative, something that is not sleek, as is often the case here. But, on the other hand, this is precisely why such an exhibition can cause some kind of resonance, some kind of response, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s negative or positive— it's good anyway. In Europe, such an exhibition will probably no longer cause a resonance.".

Meanwhile, Galina actively communicated with her viewer: “You see, their faces are very textured, so they are constantly changing: otherwise the light will fall, and the doll will be different. Like a portrait of Dorian Gray, only without the mystical coloring. I am with them as with people, sometimes I feel like they are so alive...”

When I turned to Galina for a comment, she was not at all surprised by the Belarusian language and did not, as often happens, begin to apologize for the fact that she loves the language, but cannot speak it. The artist easily switched to Belarusian, pleasantly surprising me with her smooth and beautiful speech: “Of course, I knew that the reaction of the follower would be different and not intended, because I was taken over by the Polish people— I'm telling you that I'm not mainstream, but a hoot of the underground. Since I exhibit my works very rarely in Belarus, people wait for the exhibition to look at them. Some navat and I’ll give it a try, if only I could look at the new dolls! Velma often may dolls do not go out for a walk, because the adrazu is caught somewhere in the flesh and their natural damage is no longer soft.

And the glance at May’s creations is not intended— geta is normal, I myself am so unreasonable (grin). There is no way to merkavat's primordial man's appearance with a yagon-like appearance. And for me dachshund. I don’t live in any place, I don’t eat any kind of people or other people. I am an extraordinary man, I have here: a husband, a son. I can think differently about my parents. For me, the girls are kind, bright, and ignorant. lku Pad my interior, pad my chest... Of course, I don’t slave Get my forest.— I won’t pay the price one more time, but sit down as a slave doll. There I have the right to slave to what I want.

I have a lot of troubles with the Belarusian herders and calculator. We have lethal three-four chalaveks, which come in May. But with the Europeans, who are more rugged, who are more lively, I easily find contact— the size of the largest dolls in private markets in Europe. Prychym, kali chalavek once again the doll, on abavyazkova nabudze and the other, and tretsyuyu - squeeze like a drug. And they trap people who are young and old, but they are not young, as many people think. This practice is for those who are in the world and, of course, at work.".

The artist also noted that Irina Khanunik-Rombalskaya, which recently exhibited its models, very similar in style to Galina’s work, has nothing to do with her dolls. Galina denied rumors that she taught the TV presenter puppetry.