"Grand Slam" is the result of a large-scale research project of Sergey Poteryaev, calling into question the very essence of contemporary photography as a document. This work focuses on a story that occurred 60 years ago. On May 1, 1960 a US plane flown by an American intelligence officer, Francis Garry Powers, was shot down near Sverdlovsk. After being hit, the pilot parachuted safely down but was then arrested, and the investigation and trial of his case turned into a show trial of Soviet propaganda. Powers' mission was to take photographs of Soviet military bases. He flew over Stalinabad, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Kirov, Arkhangelsk, Kandalaksha, and Murmansk and was expected to land at a military base in Norway. This large-scale reconnaissance operation was called the "Grand Slam", like the prestigious tennis accolade that the winner of four major tennis tournaments receives.In August 1960, Powers was convicted and sentenced to ten years, but two years later he was exchanged for the Soviet spy William Fisher (Rudolf Abel). Despite the fact that the details of this dramatic story were extensively covered in the press and were thoroughly documented in photographs and other evidence, a number of "secret incidents" were excluded from the official version. For instance, it was much later that a tragic death of the Soviet pilot Sergei Safronov near Degtyarsk was reported. His plane was shot down by mistake during the attack on the Powers' aircraft. In this instance, as well as in many similar cases, photography served as a tool for creating a powerful legend for propaganda. The manipulations with official documents in the race for archival evidence was a major step towards capturing the "truth".

Due to its technical nature, photography seems to be the most objective means of connecting with reality, literally an unconditional proof of what happened. We tend to trust a visual image that acts as a document. However, like any other source of information, photography is only a fragment of a message about reality, highlighted by the photographer's angle and layout, and the audience's understanding of what is happening in the photo and beyond.

What do we see when we look at a photograph? Reliable evidence that convinces us in its realism, or a meticulous staging that hides the inaccessible and unfinished context. Every time, the fragmented nature and vulnerability of visual information makes us face a choice in interpretation.Sergey Poteryaev's installation is a quirky metal structure resembling a man-made pile of debris in shape (rhymed with a famous photo depicting the remains of Powers' military aircraft). Some parts of the composition feature fragments of photographs. The images in the pictures are reduced to fragments, spots, multiply enlarged newspaper clippings, which makes it challenging to follow the original plot, and sometimes even to recognize the image. The metal fragments, like parts of a once whole story, are irreversibly split into fragments and mixed. Poteryaev's documentary installation is a story turned into an exhibition, a story with many variables.