Content Type: Interview
- Vol. 4, no. 2
- 2019
- Online: August 26, 2020
Summary
Public space directs how we live and act, how we socialize and even protest. If there is no community and solidarity there is no city, no civilization; there can only be a »city-state« as the modern version of an empire, says Murat Germen, photographer known for his critical view on the home-town of Istanbul. Muta-morphosis, probably one of his most famous series, uses digital manipulation to show a dark vision of future cities: buildings cramed together as in a strange and dangerous mutation process, almost melting as objects in Dali’s paintings. Through his artworks, text and lectures, Murat Germen criticizes excessive urbanization, motivated by capital and not by human needs. He also documented Gezi Park protests, in which the political aspect of managing the city became very apparent. His photos can be understood as a visual protest and Murat Germen thinks some of them may turn into visual evidence of the urban crime committed by the present Turkish government since 2002, when it came to power.
- Keywords: art, art and social power, gentrification, urbanism, visual protest
Iza Pevec (1987) finished the studies of art history and comparative literature. She has been writing about art and culture for some time, she was writing for Radio Student and since 2014 she is also working for Radio Slovenia – programe Ars. As a young curator she was part of the project Zagon of Gallery Škuc and in programme of the Centre and Gallery P74 Incubator for young curators. Since 2013 she is also writing for the Fotografija magazine.
Murat Germen is an artist, academic and archivist using photography as an expression and research tool. Born 1965, he currently lives and works in Istanbul and London. Has an MArch degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he went as a Fulbright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence. Works as a professor of art, photography and new media at Sabanci University in Istanbul. Having many papers, photo series published on architecture, photography, art and new media in various publications; he has lectured at tens of conferences internationally. His oeuvre focuses on impacts of over-urbanization and gentrification, dis-possession, new forms, tools and methods of imperialism, civic rights, participatory citizenship, sustainability of local cultures, human devastation of nature, climate change, global warming, water rights.
No available references.
- Vol. 4, no. 2
- 2019
- Online: August 25, 2020
Summary
Contribution focuses on the series Travelling Through the Territory by Brazilian photographer, Gabriel Uchida, in collaboration with the Uru-eu-wau-wau. In the interview, his experience living and collaborating with the Native peoples of the Amazon, the political climate in Brazil and the unsettling feeling towards the destruction of the Amazon are discussed. Brazil’s historical narrative has largely situated itself in contraposition to Indigenous narratives, which are often marginalized and submerged to a time immemorial. Illegal land invasions, death threats and injustice are on the rise, heightened by the damaging rhetoric of President Bolsonaro. Today, the Indigenous population is inseparable from resistance and protest, photography lends itself as a tool for self-defense and preservation. Besides cameras, the Internet is largely accessible, compact (smartphones) and provides direct contact with global audiences, contributing to the circulation of information and unbiased narratives.
- Keywords: amazon, Brazil, indigenous, marginal narratives, uru-eu-wau-wau
Louise M. Hisayasu (1991, Sāo Paulo) is an interdisciplinary researcher based in Berlin, Germany, interested in discourses around decolonial theory, marginal narratives and memory. Her project, “Arquivo Tadaima” makes space for Japanese-Brazilian narratives, by investigating the (trans)formation of cultures through a critical reflection on migration and identity. She has recently completed her postgraduate degree in the fields of media studies and art & technology from the Erasmus Mundus – Media Arts Cultures joint masters degree.
Gabriel Uchida (33 years old) was born in Valinhos – São Paulo (Brazil). Uchida graduated in Journalism and started taking photos in 2008. After that he’s worked in several different places like Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, USA, Germany, Turkey, Ethiopia and Namibia. His photos were already published in more than 30 countries and he had exhibitions in Germany, Ethiopia and Brazil. In 2018 Uchida won the first place photo award at the World Water Forum and also at the “Ojo a La Amazonia – FAO/ONU”. Since 2016 he’s been living and traveling around the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest to photograph indigenous peoples and environmental issues.
- Agência IGBE. 2018. “10% of population concentrate nearly half of Brazilian income.” April 11. Available online here.
- Andrade, Rodrigo de Oliveira. 2019. “Alarming Surge in Amazon Fires Prompts Global Outcry”. Nature. Available online here. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02537-0
- “Quem São?” 2018. Povos Indígenas No Brasil. Available online here.
- Rabben, Linda. 2003. Brazil’s Indians and the Onslaught of Civilization. Washington: University of Washington Press.
- Watts, Jonathan. 2019. “G7 Can’t Turn A Blind Eye To Ecocide In The Amazon.” The Guardian online.
- Vol. 4, no. 1
- 2019
- Online: April 14, 2020
Summary
Maja Smrekar is a visual artist addressing current phenomena in contemporary society. Her earlier works often touch upon the mundane permeated by stereotypes of popular culture, the future as understood through fiction, and the ethical aspects of human interventions in nature and natural processes. In 2014, she began performing her continuous work K-9_topology, in which she analyses the causes and consequences of human domination on the planet, and questions the self-evidence of the anthropogenic mentality. During the following four years, this artistic research and extremely interdisciplinary action led her to deeply explore the relationship between a human and a dog. Individual elements of the project were introduced through performance, installation, artist book, and photography. The following interview focuses on this segment of her work; on her reflections on the relationship between a human and an animal; and on certain important social contexts that define her work.
- Keywords: contemporary art, human-dog relation, performance art, posthumanism, wildlife domestication
Miha Colner (born 1978) has graduated from Art History and works as a freelance curator and art critic. Colner works as a curator and programme coordinator at the International Centre of Graphic Arts / Svicarija Creative Centre in Ljubljana. He is also active as a publicist, specialised in photography, printmaking, artists’ moving image and various forms of (new) media art. In the period 2006-2016 he was a curator at Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana. Since 2005 he has been a contributor of newspapers, magazines, specialist publications, and his personal blog, as well as part-time lecturer. In 2006, he became a member of the project group Station DIVA at the SCCA Institute in Ljubljana, which is creating an archive and conducts research on Slovenian video art. In 2007, he co-curated and co-organized Break 2.4 festival, held biannually by K6/4 Institute. Since 2005, he has also worked as an art critic and a regular member of the cultural department at Radio Študent – he is an editor of the show on contemporary art Art-Area. He is also a regular external contributor to the daily newspaper Dnevnik and to the magazines Fotografija and Art-Words. He occasionally contributes to other specialist magazines on fine art and music, such as Maska, Forum, Časopis za kritiko znanosti, Flash, Folio, Zarez, Art Kontura, Frakcija (Croatia), Foto dokumenti (Serbia), Flaneur, Cluster (Great Britain), and Sculpture Network (USA). He lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
http://mihacolner.com
http://www.mglc-lj.si
Maja Smrekar (1978) graduated at the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and holds a Master’s of Arts in Video and New Media from the same institution. Her work is based on an interdisciplinary research of the developments and application of ideological structures in society. In exhibiting her projects, she employs various art media and conceptual tools such as installation, performance, drawing, sound, text, video and photography. She has been awarded the Golden Nica award at the Ars Electronica festival and the Prešeren Foundation Award, among others. Currently, she is Guest Professor at the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design. Maja Smrekar lives and works in Ljubljana.
No available references.
- Vol. 4, no. 1
- 2019
- Online: April 14, 2020
Summary
We meet with David Bate, artist and theorist working in photography in a Portuguese cafe in London the day the United Kingdom is holding what will most probably be its last European Parliamentary elections. The country has been at the forefront of education in photography, offering a record number of university degrees which historically were pioneer in introducing critical theory as part of the curriculum. But today this situation might have changed. The conversation flows freely between Bate’s experience of growing up in a working class area in 1970s UK and the realities of today’s educational and social system, the correlation between theory and practice and the paradoxes of the digital image and our current relation to it, aiming to introduce (or update) our readers to one of the most thought provoking and rigorous critical practitioners (which is to say, thinkers) working in and with the medium today.
- Keywords: certainty and photography, David Bate, image virtuality, photography and truth, photography education, representation
Andreia Alves de Oliveira is a photo artist, researcher and lecturer based in London. She holds a PhD (2014) and an MA (2009) in photographic studies from the University of Westminster and is visiting lecturer in Photography at Birmingham City University. Previously, she studied law and worked as a lawyer. Andreia’s practice and research are concerned with the notion of artistic research, as well as the theory of photography and theories of representation, in relation to concepts of space and the everyday. www.andreiaoliveira.net
David Bate is an artist and theorist working in photography. His books Photography: The Key Concepts (2nd edition, Bloomsbury, 2016), Art Photography (Tate Publishing, 2015), Photography and Surrealism (IB Tauris, 2004) as well as the journal photographies (Routledge, 2009–) of which he is a co-founding editor, are perhaps the most popular representatives of a career that spans more than 30 years and includes numerous essays and art works crucial to a critical understanding of the medium through time and across different geographies. Teaching has been a constant activity in Bate’s career, and it was at the University of Westminster (formerly, the Polytechnic of Central London), where he is Professor of Photography.
- Bate, D. 2018. “Camera Phones and Mobile Intimacies.” In: The Evolution of the Image. Political Action and the Digital Self, edited by Marco Bohr and Basia Sliwinska, Ch. 1. New York: Routledge.
- Manovich, L. et. all. 2014. Selfiecity. Accessed May 30. Available online here.
- Stiegler, B. 2016. Automatic Society: The Future of Work. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Vol. 4, no. 1
- 2019
- Online: April 14, 2020
Summary
In the interview Spanish photographer Joan Fontcuberta reflects upon his diverse photographic practise and his constant playing on the idea of different spaces which photography inhabits. He claims that “Photography by itself doesn’t mean anything,” what makes a difference is managing its uses. He discusses the topics of reformulation of the concept of authorship, notion of the fake as a methodology of art and of political activism, parody and humour as long traditions of Mediterranean thought and a rejection of pleasure as a hegemonic current in contemporary art. He also speaks of his explorations of the relationship between nature photography and nature of photography, the Eden of Adam and Eve as the first botanical garden and the fact that today nature has become a cultural, ideological, economic and political construct. In the end he also touches on the phenomenon of the internet, ideas of post-truth and his concept of Homo photographicus.
- Keywords: contemporary photography, deception, fiction, humour and art, Joan Fontcuberta, post-truth and photography
Jasna Jernejšek (born 1982) holds a BA in Cultural Studies and an MA in Media and Communication Studies from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. Since 2012 she is an editor of radio programme on contemporary visual arts Art-Area at Radio Student. She is a regular contributor to Fotografija magazine. Since 2013 she collaborates as project manager and curator with gallery Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography and with festival Photonic Moments – Month of Photography. She lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Emina Djukić (1982) is a visual artist and pedagogue. She completed her master’s degree in photography at the VŠVU in Bratislava, and currently she is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, photography department. From 2005 to 2010 she collaborated with the Medvode Youth Cultural Center, where she was also a program director for some time. For several years as a mentor she participated in the Celje Fokus summer workshop and was her artistic director in 2013. Since 2015 she has been a member of the editorial board of Fotografija magazine. She is researching the media of photography for a long time; Currently she is mainly concerned with the narrative possibilities of photography and its relation to the past.
Joan Fontcuberta (1955) is a Spanish artist, self-described as “a conceptual artist using photography.” Through his works he examines the truthfulness of photography and investigates photography’s authority and the human inclination to believe what we see. Contradiction, playfulness, conflict and the possible – all form the territory on which his works are situated. He is known for his projects such as Herbarium (1984), Fauna (1987), Sputnik (1997), Sirens (2000), Gastropoda (2013) and Trauma (2016). Fontcuberta sees himself as a self-educated photographer, inspired by the Dadaists and Situationists. He is also a teacher, editor, curator and writer.
No available references.
- Vol. 3, no. 2
- 2018
- Online: April 9, 2020
Summary
The conversation between the two researches revolves around the central question of backdrop, its meaning, position inside the studio practices. It delves into the performative aspect of backdrop photography putting it in proximity with theatre and cinema, question its nature as a prop in the process of staging an image. The question seem to be how can photography as a general practice can be understood and its theoretical notions enriched through research into rich backdrop practices (in case of Pinney and Fevero mostly in India and surrounding region) and how can we explain those practice via the established theoretical cannons. The conversation negotiates through main notions of authors such as Michael Fried, John Tagg, illuminates on usually neglected nuances of Barthes Camera Lucida to finally elaborate the profilmic nature of backdrop photography and its representative role of the society in which it functions. What kind of politics of space does it represent; is it transformative or representative? What is the meaning of the notion of the prophetic nature of photography?
- Keywords: backdrop photography, photographic event, politics of space, profilmic, prophetic nature of photography
Paolo Silvio Harald Favéro is a visual anthropologist presently Associate Professor in Film Studies and Visual Culture at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp. A member of at the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi) he is also the Chair of the MA is Film Studies and Visual Culture. Paolo has devoted the core of his recent career to the study of visual culture in India (and partly also Italy). Ethnographically involved today in research on emerging image-making practices and politics in contemporary India, he was recently awarded funding by the Flemish government for a project on the introduction of digital technologies in Cuba. He has a number of publications on the meaning of images in contemporary digitized habitats of the world but also more broadly on the meaning of images in human life across space and time. Paolo is the author of The Present Image: Visible Stories in a Digital Habitat (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and of Dentro ed Oltre l’Immagine: saggi sulla cultura politica e visive nell’Italia contemporanea (Meltemi, 2017). He is presently working on a new book entitled Image-Making-India (Bloomsbury).
Christopher Pinney is Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London. His chief interests are in commercial print culture and photography in South Asia and popular Hinduism in central India. He is currently leading the European Research Council funded project “Photodemos/Citizens of Photography.” His publications combine contemporary ethnography with the historical archaeology of particular media (see eg. Camera Indica and Photos of the Gods). The Coming of Photography in India, based on the Panizzi Lectures, was published by the British Library in October 2008. Other recent work includes Photography and Anthropology (Reaktion, 2011) and (together with Suresh Punjabi) Artisan Camera: Studio Photography from Central India (Tara, 2013).
No available references.