Shelter
An idea once expressed by George Santayana – „those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – most accurately correlates with the recent history of military and ideological conflicts in the Western world. The tragic geopolitical events of the past century have either been forgotten or pushed out of the collective experience as something inconvenient and outdated. The seemingly obvious facts about the numerous wars, the cold war between NATO and the Soviet Union, the arms race, and recent disarmament treaties appear to have had no lasting effect on modern society, which once again resumes the rhetoric of the cold war, nationalism, and conflict. Despite this curious state of oblivion, some experiences from the collective conflict are reinterpreted and transformed into new communal rituals, educational content, and legislative initiatives, which, in turn, support the current cultural state of demarcation and ideological contradictions between the ex-Eastern and Western bloc countries.
The works from the “Shelter” series are rooted in a quest conducted in various locations, image archives, and memories that bear witness to the events of WWI, WWII, and the Cold War tensions between NATO and the Soviet Union. The old Soviet military bases, after more than 20 years of neglect, are now being repurposed to meet the needs of NATO armed forces, and these walls may soon witness a replay of a not-so-long-forgotten history. Over 30 years' worth of archives containing civil defence instructions on how to protect oneself during wartime or following the deployment of nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons are just one of many sources of inspiration for the “Shelter ” series
Overall, these works explore the recurrence of collective oblivion, the repetition of history, and the grotesque language of propaganda. They emphasize the significance of the images and the technical communication codes, which reveal new and ironic meanings of collective fear and memory when decontextualised and visually recoded.
First time presented as part of Discovery Award at The Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France 2017
2016 - 2018 / All works are archival pigment ink prints on rag paper, manipulated gelatin silver prints, postcards/collages. mounted on dibond, framed.
2016 - 2018 / All works are archival pigment ink prints on rag paper, manipulated gelatin silver prints, postcards/collages. mounted on dibond, framed.
