TROUBLÉ
Fragment N3
TROUBLÉ An Inner Crossing
“Troublé is much more than an exhibition. It's an immersion. A visceral and unfiltered exploration of the moods of a being in transition, uprooted, disoriented, but deeply human. Through psychological realism, Dmitrii Volkov opens the doors of interiority, by exposing the raw fragments of the experience of emotional growth and adaptation in an unusual place. A physical migration, of course, but above all mental and spiritual.”
Fragment N12
Fragment N14
Interviewer, June 2025
This body of work explores unconscious states and complex emotions experienced during moments of transition. It reflects the search for new archetypal images within the mind, and the attempt to name and understand the internal processes that shape our perception. At its core, it is about movement, growing up, adapting to a new culture, and translating emotional experiences into a visual language.
Discomfort is often something people try to avoid, yet it is precisely where meaningful transformation begins. In this work, I explore themes of loss, detachment, and the fears that emerge in uncertain moments. From these emotional states, stories surface, some long forgotten, others newly formed.
Rather than resisting discomfort, I chose to observe it closely. It becomes a space of attention, a place where something new can take root.
Growth may not be immediate, but over time, it reveals what is truly ours.
One year after this exhibition, I’ve come to understand that life was meant to be lived through those emotions, and that passing through them was necessary. It is not only about growing up in another country, but about a moment of transformation: a raw fragment of life captured in its most vulnerable state. A time of restructuring, of learning trust and appreciation at a young age, while internally, everything feels far more complex, almost impossible to fully express.
These drawings were created as a way to notice the depth of emotions and memories. So many processes move through us unnoticed, quietly shaping the direction of our future.
They pass through life and remain as drawings, traces that remind us to pay attention. This work is a fusion of psychological realism, emotional depth, and the reconstruction of archetypal memory.
It is where youth meets growth, where an inner battle takes place: to observe, without fear, the most intimate human emotions. Love, fear, loss, growth, remembrance.
Fragment N2
I arrived in Paris without ever planning to come here. Life unfolded in such a way that I slowly began to understand that this, would become my home.
I would often stop drawing, yet people around me kept giving me pencils. Perhaps because once I begin, I can never truly stop.
In Paris, I found a world shaped by aesthetics, markets filled with flowers, patterns, and beauty. But beneath this surface, I was learning something deeper: culture, politics, philosophy, and how they are lived in everyday life. I began to see how thousands of unspoken rules shape a person.
I experienced the sensitivity of French culture, where direct expression especially on subjects that felt essential to me, could almost feel forbidden. It created a tension, a distance I needed to understand.
To navigate this, I turned to history. I explored the city through its past, searching for meaning, context, and connection.
This exhibition is the result of that process.
When Art Resists a Name
Each piece captures moments of perception, where memory, emotion, and life’s patterns intertwine. Every fragment tells a story shaped by inner states and experiences.
Giving them fixed names would impose limits. Instead, the pieces invite the viewer to reflect and feel, letting the story live in each person.
Unseen emotions, familiar-yet-strange places, and memories that hint at how we might have acted, all make each fragment unique and impossible to name.
Growing into a new culture through the language of images.
Fragment N7
"The soul in black and white, the charcoal as its voice."
"Charcoal doesn’t give answers, it asks something of you."
Fragment N4