Svetlana Arefiev
— Contemporary Painter
Svetlana Arefiev is a painter and professional art restorer. Trained at the School of Fine Arts, she worked at the Museum of Architecture in Moscow before settling in Lyon, France, in 1994.
Her practice is shaped by a dialogue between two gestures: preserving what already exists and revealing what remains invisible. This encounter between restoration and creation gives rise to an artistic world in which memory, time and imagination play an essential role.
Among her most emblematic creations are her monumental paper scrolls, which can extend up to ten metres in length. Conceived as open-ended narratives, they embody the idea of a story in a constant state of becoming.
Her reflections on art, time, death and the search for meaning take shape on canvas and paper, while also extending onto the screen.
Artist’s official website: www.svetlanaarefiev.com
Photo: Ingrid Cox
PULSATION PROJECT
Collaboration between Svetlana Arefiev, painter,
and Serguei Malikov, vascular surgeon
The surgeon’s intervention in the artworks brings the pulse of real life and adds a further narrative dimension.
Between repair and creation, this gesture reveals a dual beauty: that which is saved and that which saves.
"Our project began with a meeting with a vascular surgeon. He showed me his preparatory sketches before a surgery, and I was fascinated by their beauty—especially knowing they were connected to human life."
"This experience inspired me to incorporate his drawings into my own paintings. I believe it will bring a new dimension to my work and infuse it with a unique meaning."
Repairing the World
The artist sees in the surgeon’s preparatory sketches for each operation an artistic statement: behind every surgical plan lies a human life, and each line drawn by his pencil is, in its own way, a lifeline.
Each brushstroke by the artist, inspired by surgical sketches, serves as a reminder that behind every artwork lies a unique story—evoking both the fragility and strength of each life.
By repeating the tree-like pattern of nature, the blood vessels restored by the surgeon provide the body with oxygen, just as trees do for the entire planet Earth.
The work of the artist and the surgeon on this project is a shared experience of exploring beauty—an inspired endeavor, among other things, by the Renaissance era, when science and art formed a unified whole, and the aspiration to understand the link between the human microcosm and the macrocosm—the universe—was at the forefront.
Svetlana: I decided to cut my scroll 'Dream' to fund my exciting project, the one that’s closest to my heart!
It’s not destruction—it’s giving it a new life.
Sometimes, you have to sacrifice something to achieve what you dream of!
Film directed by Gilles Tardy — Les Histoires Bleues Production, France, 2024.