The Paris Photo annual photography fair, held in late November at the legendary Carrousel du Louvre, brings together over a hundred galleries and publishers presenting a panorama of the finest examples of photographic expression from the Nineteenth Century to the present day. With over 75% of foreign participants, the focus of this year's edition is Central Europe and Polish artists
The 14th edition of Paris Photo turns the spotlight on Central Europe this month, revealing new talents through a series of awards and competitions, also offering a rich programme of events and meetings dedicated to the discovery of established artists in their native countries as well as up-and coming talents. Coinciding with the biennial "Mois de la Photo", a month-long photographic event which turns the city of Paris into the photography capital of the world in November, both events present an overview of the Central European scene, from the 1920's avant-garde movements and the post-war years through to the most contemporary production.
From the very beginning of the Twentieth Century, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, Ljubljana and Warsaw were home to an intellectual avant-garde promoting a new vision of photography. This medium remains the preferred language through which Central European artists express a new political and social reality, borrowing from diverse practices and fields ranging from visual and performing arts to documentary and more subjective forms.
Within the rich programme of events dedicated to Central Europe, two major shows featuring Polish artists are organised: "Transition Times: Video Art from Central Europe" and "Statement", a section dedicated to the emerging scene in Central Europe.
The Central Exhibition / Project Room "Transition Times: Video Art from Central Europe" offers a thematic selection of videos by Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovenian and Polish artists dedicating their work to a rough, even raw criticism of society.
Throughout Central Europe, the period following the fall of the Berlin Wall has been characterised by transition and transformation. Numerous artists began chronicling the processes they were witnessing though the use of mass media. In fact, video as a medium of art has proved to be an optimal tool for the documentation and analysis of these changes, especially once access to video technology became more universal. The selected artworks document, analyse and contextualise the complex region of Central Europe and this specific period in individual and collective history, with a special focus on the human dimensions of the transition process.
Polish artists and works featured in the exhibition:
- Józef Robakowski: From My Window 1978-1999, 2000, 20'00". Courtesy of the WRO Art Center, Wrocław
- Anna Molska: Tanagram, 2006-2007, 5'18". Courtesy of the artist and the Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
- Azorro: Everything Has Been Done I, 2003, 12'00". Courtesy of the Raster Gallery, Warsaw
"Transition Times" is a project curated by Rita Kálmán and Tijana Stepanović managers of the ACAX Agency for Contemporary Exchange, an affiliate of the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest.
The "Statement" section is managed by guest curator Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, and brings together 8 galleries from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Poland, presenting emerging talents from the region with artists born in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The two Polish galleries invited to take part in the project are the Czarna Gallery from Warsaw, featuring artists Dorota Buczkowska, Teresa Gierzyńska, Monika Wiechowska and Szymon Rogiński, and ZPAF i S-ka Gallery from Kraków, presenting works by Konrad Pustoła, Filip Berendt, Nicolas Grospierre, and Slovenian and Czech duet Aleksandra Vajd & Hynek Alt.
Also organized within the framework of the 14th Paris Photo and the biennial Month of Photography, various conferences are scheduled, including "Polish Photography: a Story under Construction" ("La photographie polonaise: une histoire en construction") on November 19, 2010 at 14:00 at the Project Room space.
The roundtable discussion moderated by art critic and French-Polish curator Patrick Komorowski, also hosts Adam Mazur, art critic and curator of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Karol Hordziej, artistic director of the Photomonth in Kraków and director of the ZPAF i S-ka Gallery, Karolina Lewandowska, photography historian and president of the Archeology of Photography Foundation (Fundacja Archelogia Fotografii), as well as artist Nicolas Grospierre and photographer Jerzy Lewczyński.
Komorowski, Mazur and Rafał Lewandowski (Asymetria Gallery in Warsaw) are the curators of the exhibition "Photography in Communist Poland: A Surrealist Spirit?" at the Baudoin Lebon Gallery, organized on the occasion of the Mois de la Photo in Paris.
Paris Photo 2010 is held between November 18 and 21, 2010.
- Carrousel du Louvre
99 rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris
Metro: Palais-Royal / Musée du Louvre station
For more information about the programme, participating artists and galleries, see: www.parisphoto.fr
Source: Press release.