Evgeny Bondarenko international artist.

The article in the Magazine Fashion Academy. Rostov-on-Don, Russia.

My name is Evgeny Bondarenko. For the past seven years, I have been traveling and painting urban landscapes. I focus on everyday motifs, the everyday life of local residents. This way, I study life, myself, and human perception in general. After all, the experience of observing the external environment says a lot about the observer, as my character inevitably provokes situations characteristic of it. So, it's not surprising when I meet doppelgangers of my friends from Moscow and Rostov in some distant Eastern country, except that they speak Chinese.

I consider this my main discovery over all these years, that there is a constant dialogue between our character and the character of the environment, just like in communication between people. There is mutual understanding, respect, the opportunity to learn, ask questions, and even become a teacher when the environment is amazed by your answers to its questions.

Each of my plein-air landscapes is connected with a very personal and significant experience. There is much more to it than what remains on paper in the end. But each new experience pushes me to make a new decision, which results in a new series of works.

Shanghai is my first visit to China and a cultural shock. I found myself in a completely unfamiliar world, where I didn't know anyone. And here I am, standing and painting. People gather, watch with interest, partly just studying me, partly curious about my work.

But I also look at them with great interest. And for the first time, someone said to me, "Thank you for your work and welcome to Shanghai!" It was just some passerby, but for me, he was Shanghai itself.

Then, in a similar way, different cities greeted me, hundreds and even thousands of new friends, each with some adventures and fond memories. For example, the director of the hotel where I stayed invited the Mayor of Shanghai to my studio, and with him came the Vice Premier of China!

A recently acquainted person published a book called "Shanghai Zen" and invited me to visit her hometown in France, saying, "Look at the photos. Nice is a great city! We have a beach." So I ended up in Nice and Paris.

A familiar owner of a private school in Hong Kong invited me to conduct a master class on cityscape painting. Hong Kong caused me a second cultural shock.

Before that, I used to think, "What rich imagination Japanese cyberpunk artists have." And here I saw that it's not just imagination, but everyday life. The movies "Ghost in the Shell" and "The Fifth Element" were filmed here, in Hong Kong.

For example, here's a landscape with a gap between skyscrapers, a view from the office of my Chinese friend. He jokingly says, "I have a great view of the harbor." But this is really cool. It's as if different layers became visible, each living in its own special rhythm.

Here's an empty courtyard with a boy awkwardly riding a bike. Then a picture: a crazy flow of high-speed roads, intertwining in bridges and disappearing into tunnels. Construction. A little further, the excitement of the water, on which a ship leisurely sails by. And on the other side, houses that also block the view of the harbor.

And behind them, the same friend eagerly absorbs the narrow gap between concrete with his eyes and soul... This is Hong Kong."