If I am selected for the Dover Prize, I would like to develop a project called “The People Behind the Tracks”. It will focus on the human stories hidden in the railway history of Darlington. I am interested not only in the technology or the famous inventions, but in the lives of ordinary workers. These are the engineers, cleaners, signalmen and others whose presence shaped the world of trains but was rarely recorded.
My idea is to spend time in the local archives and museums, learning from photographs, personal documents and old newspapers. From this research, I will create a series of portraits. Some will be painted, others will include text, sound, or materials linked to railway labour. I hope to make the past visible and personal.
I am also interested in what I call industrial folklore. This means the unofficial stories and memories passed through generations. These could be a name someone used at work, a way to hold a tool, or a short melody heard in a workshop. Small details like these often carry strong emotion and memory. I would like to bring them into my visual work and connect them with the wider social landscape of the town.
I believe this project could bring more public attention to the creative life of Darlington. It connects with the town’s identity through the people who worked in railway transport and lived around it. Their voices and images are not always visible in public spaces. I would like to change that through careful visual research and storytelling.
The portraits I plan to create are based on time spent in local archives and in conversation with residents. I want to spend time learning about personal histories and the industrial surroundings of the town. The artworks will reflect both the human presence and the traces of work, routine, and change in Darlington.
I also hope to be in touch with local art organisations, schools or community groups during the process. This way the project could include more voices and perspectives from the area and create interest around visual arts. My practice is based on listening, research and response, and I believe Darlington offers strong ground for this kind of work.
By making this work in and for Darlington, I hope to support its cultural identity and bring more attention to the role of visual art in remembering shared experience.
Please tell us about your practice. Please include any recent exhibitions if applicable. (350 words)
2013 — 2015 Institute of Contemporary Art, Moscow
2005 — 2007 Postgraduate in Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute
1999 — 2005 Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute, Painting Department
1995 — 1999 Nizhny Novgorod Art College
2021 Finalist of the Kandinsky Art Award with the project PROMZONA
2020 Winner of the Innovation Prize, Artist of the Year
2020 Artist of the Year by the International Cosmoscow Contemporary Art Fair
2019 Long list of the Kandinsky Art Award with the project Psychozoic Era
2017 Long list of the Kandinsky Art Award with the project White Sea. Black Hole
2017 The Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award, Special Award of the French Institute in St. Petersburg
2015 Long list of the Kandinsky Art Award with the project Inner Degunino
2015 Finalist of the international juried show Portrait Now, Juror: Jacob Christian Jacobsen, Denmark
2013 Nominee for the STRABAG Art Award International, Austria
Yes, I am actively involved in creating self-led professional opportunities. My projects Promzona and The Ringing Trace were developed independently through extensive research and collaboration. For Promzona, I initiated partnerships with sound artists and local communities, creating an immersive installation rooted in post-industrial memory. Promzona was artist-led from concept to realisation, involving curatorial decisions, technical coordination, and collaborative outreach without institutional production support.
The Ringing Trace extended this approach, combining spatial sound design and archival materials to explore landscapes of trauma and loss.
Yes, I was commissioned to create The Ringing Trace for the 6th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (2021), to create Acting Out project for Pushkin house in London (2022), and to create Promzona in Uppsala Konstmuseum in Sweden (2022)
Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala, Sweden
Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA), Russia
Exiled Russian artist reflects on the impact of war on his Hometown in Peckham show, Sophia Kishkovsky, The Art Newspaper. 13 June 2024
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/06/12/exiled-russian-artist-reflects-on-the-impact-of-war-on-his-hometown-in-peckham-show
Pavel Otdelnov’s Hometown. Ilya Gurn, London Cult. 18 June 2024
https://londoncult.co.uk/en/pavel-otdelnovs-hometown/
Pavel Otdelnov: Acting Out, Marcus Verhagen, Art Monthly, № 46. pp.28—29. December—January 2022-2023
The Ringing Trace: capturing the invisible legacy of a Soviet nuclear catastrophe, Masha Borodacheva, ‘The Calvert Journal’, 18 February 2022
https://www.new-east-archive.org/features/show/13668/legacy-soviet-nuclear-project-russia-z
Pavel Otdelnov: Future Ruins, Kate de Pury, ‘Art Focus Now’, 14th issue, January 2020
https://14thissue.russianartfocus.com/pavel-otdelnov-future-ruins/
See Death and Life in Dzerzhinsk, Aaron James Wedland, ‘The Moscow Times’, 18 February, 2019
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/02/18/see-death-and-life-in-dzerzhinsk-a64533
Artist probes Russia’s toxic legacy through family history, Kate de Pury, Associated Press Agency, 20 February 2019
https://www.apnews.com/a4095a6ece9140b4b58169c83f2decee
2024 Montenegro European Art Community, Budva, Montenegro
2022 Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
2021 Ural Biennale Residence Programme, Sokol, Chelyabinsk Region, Russia
2017 Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
2016 Department of Research Arts, Kazan, Russia
2012 Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
Email: otdelnovpavel@gmail.com
Address: 140, St. Asaph Road, London, GB
Local Authority: Lewisham
