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Haralampi Oroschakoff in his studio …

The atelier of artist Haralampi Oroschakoff is located in a 30’s building of an industrial district in West Berlin. Although I know the Austrian-born for many years now, this is my first visit to the nearly 300-square-meter studio, which offers huge windows with a view into a garden settlement. Light shines into the loft-like rooms in which the largely sized pictures of Oroschakoff arise. The avowed Wiener comes from the Old Russian noble family of the Boyars Haralamow-Oreschak, which can be traced back to the eleventh century. For 16 years the internationally successful artist lives with his wife, Countess Diana von Hohenthal und Bergen and the joint children in the German capital. His works hang at the walls of celebrities like Vicky Leandros, Jette Joop or Princess Firyal of Jordan. Nevertheless, his artistic career has always been a struggle for recognition.

… which is located in a 30’s building of an industrial district in West Berlin

MyStylery:  An artist’s studio automatically associates the idea of creative chaos. I’m amazed by the tidiness of your place – it’s downright homely…
Haralampi G. Oroschakoff: To me the atelier is not only a think tank, but also the last place that offers me some personal freedom. I also need to feel comfortable and this is why the rooms haven’t been reduced in their expediency.

“I need to feel comfortable and this is why the rooms haven’t been reduced in their expediency.”

MS: What does the initial ‘G’ in your name stand for?
HGO: Georgijewitsch.
MS: Your father was a successful steel producer in Vienna, where you spent parts of your childhood. You could have followed his footsteps.
HGO: My father never got over the loss of the Russian Empire and the fall of the aristocracy. I should have taken over the factory, but after a year it was clear that this wouldn’t be something for me. I often overslept, thought it’s more amusing to go for Lunch instead of driving to construction sites. My father was also a mathematician and structural engineer, for example he built the Franz-Josef train station in Vienna. I, however, was an incredibly bad student who flew from ten boarding schools.
MS: Did your father make you feel that?
HGO: He never talked with me, only talked to me. Even when I exhibited at the Biennale in 1988, he remained implacable. Only when Forbes listed me as newcomer star next to Jeff Koons and Franz West in 1990 my father understood and even came to an exhibition in Belgrade.

On the wall in Haralampi’s office posters of his exhibitions

MS: That must have been very sad for you to experience no recognition as a young person.
HGO: As a child I was a silent, soul-searching powerhouse. I have much compensated by sport, I played tennis, rode horses, later drove classic car rallies. And I painted. For me drawing was thinking with a pencil.

Haralampis great-great-grandfather was the Royal Regent of Serbia. On the left: “Different Worlds (17)” , 2013; On the right hand side: “Different Worlds (30)”, 2014

MS: Why did you quit the Viennese academy of arts after only three months?
HGO: The structures were too rigid. I always hated dogmas and ideologies. It’s an inner ambivalence in me. As an artist I have to destroy things to create something new. I have actually damaged my career three times itself.
MS: What do you mean?
HGO: In the 80s I got the needed media attention to be considered as successful. But this was not enough for me and in the 90s I felt I had to face up to Eastern Europe, also as a tribute to my roots. At the turn of the millennium I went to Berlin. However my gallerists didn’t support my decision. It was always a new beginning.

“True personalities only exist barely those days. Nowadays it’s all about consumption and verbal egalitarianism.”

MS: The extreme lifestyle and the provocation seem to be parts of your personality.
HGO (laughs): The dandy and aristocrat always irritated the art scene, merely by their appearance. I also maintained these relationships, including drinking bouts and brawls – but always with the necessary elegance.
MS: The ‘Paris Bar’ in Berlin has been your second living room for years. Nowadays you seem to be very brave. Don’t you miss something?
HGO: Let’s say it like that: I mostly said adieu to vodka. I’ll come back.
MS: You describe yourself as a family man. Does family play such an important role to you due to your childhood experiences?
HGO: I consider myself a “penultimate member” in the family series. That’s why I have to give more living tradition to the next generation. This does not only include friendship and respect, honor and responsibility. I also hope that later, my children are going to preserve my work. BvH

Argo 3, 2012

With the double-cross series Haralampi Oroschakoff succeeded an international breakthrough. With the historical fiction book “Die Battenberg Affaire” (“The Battenberg Affair”) Oroschakoff also made himself a name as book author

Today, paintings, drawings and texts are from equivalent expression for Oroschafkoff. Here the artwork “Different Worlds” (31), 2014

Haralampi Oroschakoff: A Dandy in the art scene, who turns up rock music of Lou Reed and Metallica whilst working

Haralampi Oroschakoff: I’ll come back

While the large-format works of Haralampi Oroschakoff arise in the studio in Berlin, he paints Aquarelle on the family estate in Cannes: “With a sea view and an incredibly beautiful light.”

A real Grandseigneur: Haralampi Oroschakoff speaks Russian, French, English, Bulgarian – and Viennese.

Contact:

www.oroschakoff.com

Merken

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In the dining room a painting of Haralampi G. Oroschakoff: the triptych „Russia – Death of Cleopatra – Byzantium”. Stools: American Colonial Period, Table: France 20.Jhd.

Who enters the commodious flat in the old building of Diana Countess of Hohenthal and Bergen and Haralampi Oroschakoff, resorts himself on a time journey and douses into the history of two aristocratic families: there are nearly no objects that do not tell a significant story. The Countess, who was born in Munich, whose family was appointed by Prince Friedrich August I. of Saxony into the earldom back in the sixteenth century, was raised in the Bavarian baroque castle Maxlrain. The Austrian Haralampi is descended from the old Russian noble family of the Bojaren Haralamow, that can be followed back to the eleventh century. Since 15 years the gallery owner and the international successful artist – whose pieces are exhibited by prominent figures like singer Vicky Leandros, designer Jette Joop or Princess Firyal of Jordan – live in Berlin with their children.

The gallery owner Diana Countess of Hohenthal with her husband, the artist and author Haralampi G. Oroschakoff in their Berlin apartment

MyStylery: Apparently you love the change: this apartment is already your third home in Berlin.
Diana von Hohenthal: The last apartment was too small – we needed more space. Now we are here for two years and feel very well. And we remained faithful to the old structures, a newly constructed building will never be an option.

The Vintage Versace chair comes from the Versace gallery in Fasanenstraße in Berlin and was bartered by art. In the back a baroque chest and the view to the study

MS: Where does your passion for old constructions come from?
DvH: I usually perceive newly constructed buildings as too sterile; I could never live in a puristic apartment. As I was raised in a castle with 150 rooms I need a lot of space, high ceilings and air to breath.

The painting “attack” by Friedrich Fehr (1918), in front of a shaman rod of Kazakhstan by the people of Or’schak

MS: Haralampi, you were raised as a son of a fabricant in Vienna and Cannes. And you still spend half of the year at the Cote d’Azur…
Haralampi G. Oroschakoff: The life in Cannes and the view over the ocean are my elixir of life. Down south is a whole other creativity, which is mainly because of the light. Cannes is the core of the whole family.

The chandellier in the dining room is Art Deco from Vienna

In the Oroschakoff’s library, the walls are traditionally kept in red. Art Deco chairs invite you to leisurely browse

MS: Here you immediately notice especially the oriental details and colourful walls.
HGO: The walls in my workroom are red, red is so inspiring. The dining hall is turkeys and the salon always peach-colored. Yet it has always been like this in all our apartments…
DvH: We put everything together which we got, including heirlooms like the baroque commode in the salon or the oriental-artist carpet. That is how the mix of old and new, modern and antique came up.

“Polis / Republican gardens” of Haralampi Oroschakoff G. (1992). Beside the founder time chest and family photos, a Louis XVI chair

MS: Do you always agree in terms of interior?
HGO: Usually. But we have different perspectives in terms of tidiness. Diana tends to build heaps and thinks it is comfortable…
DVH: … and on the contrary for you; nothing should be weird, not even the ashtray.
HGO: That is how my inner system demands it. (laughs)

A painting of the South Russian School (17th century): Patron saint and namesake of the entire family of the Bojaren Haralamov-Oreschak

MS: All those paintings in a flat of an artist is not a surprise really. Interesting is, that the pieces mainly come from other painters. Do you need the space to your own work?
DvH: Not necessarily. There are still some of Haralampis paintings, like the triptych „Russia – Death of Cleopatra – Byzantium” in the dining room that Haralampi gave me.
HGO: The paintings of our Petersburg hanging in the kitchen are presents from Rosi Trockel, George Condo, Michel Würthle or Pascha Pepperstein. We do also exchange paintings amongst ourselves as a sign of respect and appreciation. And that is a good thing, otherwise there would only be distinction and intrigues left. (laughs)

The Petersburg hanging in the kitchen with paintings of Rosi Trockel, George Condo, Michel Würthle, Pascha Pepperstein and others

Haralampi on his regular place in the kitchen and his daily training with “Solitaire”: “There is nothing better for the concentration”.

MS: What would you do without in housing design?
HGO: As a writer an apartment without books would be unacceptable. There would also always be a place for my favorite piece, a Russian icon, which tells the story of the holy Haralampi – Charlampii, after which the Oreschak progeny were named. This name only exists in my family.
DvH: Art is a must. To me, artless rooms are a little bleak. It is strange enough that pictures usually hang too high or they are crooked. Thereby it is so easy to position a painting properly: a hammer, a bubble level and two nails. Done!  BvH

Light reflections in the corridor

Portrait of Haralampi G. Oroschakoff by his friend, the Berlin dandy Michel Würthle (1995)

Portrait of Andy Warhol by Joseph Beuys (1989), a present of the Berlin gallery Klüser

Also a collector: Haralampi Oroschakoff

Above the Noveau Art secretary in the bedroom the painting “Polis” of Haralampi G. Oroschakoff (1990)

In the master bedroom an antique, silk wedding kimono from Japan above the bed head

The Baroque showcase with medals, badges and memories of both families and a family portrait

In the hallway Russian icons and a look into the study

The photo shows the house in Cannes at the Cote d’Azur, the core of the family and the creative workshop of Haralampi G.Oroschakoff

Contact:

www.hohenthalundbergen.de
www.oroschakoff.com

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