DRAGANA JURISIC – YU: THE LOST COUNTRY

Posted on 2013-10-21

This series of photographs are the outcome of Dragana Jurisic’s journey around the former Yugoslavia, retracing the route of an extraordinary expedition made by Anglo Irish writer Rebecca West in 1937 written about in the acclaimed book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941). The final images capture unexpected and often uncanny parallels to West’s text and delve into the artist’s understanding of her own history.

At the centre of Dragana Jurisic’s project lies the extraordinary travel book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, written by Anglo Irish writer Rebecca West in 1937, charting her journey through Yugoslavia. The resulting work, initially intended as a snap book, spiralled into half a million words, and became a portrait not just of Yugoslavia, but of Europe on the brink of the Second World War.

West thought of Yugoslavia as her motherland. By its very nature Yugoslavia was a land of displaced peoples and this was a fate that Rebecca West shared. Born to an Anglo-Irish family, she never felt like she truly belonged anywhere. “In any class I feel at home, and I am never accepted, because of the traces I bear of my other origins.” West said that she could only remember things if she was able to write them down and consequently wrote half a million words about a country she knew was to become a memory, in order not to forget anything about it, and to preserve this memory for millions of Yugoslavs who now live in exile. She thought of art as re-living of experience.

Exhibition runs through to December 20th, 2013

Belfast Exposed Photography
The Exchange Place
23 Donegall Street
BT1 2FF
Belfast
Northern Ireland

www.belfastexposed.org

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DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS

Posted on 2013-10-21

Dance of the Seven Veils refers to the beheading of St. John the Baptist demanded by Salome. Interestingly, this tale has antecedents both in the Old Testament and in Assyrian and Babylonian religions, thus revealing a connection between the West and the Middle East, an undercurrent of the exhibition itself.

As the title suggests, it’s all about the veil – a controversial topic not just in the Middle East, but also in the West. One need only think of the recent clash between Muslim protesters and riot police in a Paris suburb after attempts were made to fine a woman for wearing a full Islamic veil. Or one need only recall any number of incidents in the Middle East where so-called religious police beat women for not wearing the veil.

But the veil is just the tip of the iceberg. This article of clothing has become a symbol of women’s rights – the right to drive, to education, to appear without a male relative in public, to work, to vote…. Paradoxically, the question of the veil reveals gender issues even as it conceals the female form.

Our mission is to be a catalyst for contemplation and a platform for artists of significant merit. Consistent with our commitment to relevancy and dialogue, we have chosen works for Dance of the Seven Veils which are both contemporary and provocative but which, in the final analysis, transcend their anecdotal and historical content. It is this quality of transcendence that distinguishes, for example, a photograph from a photographic work of art. When form overtakes content, craft becomes art, and timely becomes timeless. Or to put it another way, as a colleague art dealer once said, “Subject matter is only an excuse to make a great work of art.”

Exhibition runs through to December 14th, 2013

Side by Side Gallery
Potsdamerstrasse 81b
10785 Berlin
Germany

www.sidebysidegallery.com

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EDWARD BURTYNSKY – WATER

Posted on 2013-10-21

The exhibition presents a selection of photographs from a much larger body of work that, along with the film Watermark and the Burtynsky – Water book (Steidl), are a result of Edward Burtynsky’s largest project to date, documenting the scale and impact of manufacturing and consumption on the world’s water supplies. Burtynsky chronicles the various roles that water plays in modern life – as a source of healthy ecosystems and energy, as a key element in cultural and religious rituals and as a rapidly depleting resource. The photographs, both beautiful and haunting, create a compelling global portrait that illustrates humanity’s past, present and future relationship with the natural world.

Shooting in ten different countries for the Water project, Burtynsky’s subjects include dry-land farming in Spain, pivot irrigation sites in Texas, and the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In these instances, Burtynsky took to the air using conventional helicopters, remote controlled helicopters and small fixed-wing aircraft, to bring the scale of the human imprint into a more meaningful perspective. He also traveled to photograph millions of people bathing in the cleansing power of the sacred Ganges River in India; mega-dam construction on the upper Yangtze and the once-per-year silt release on the Yellow River in China, and the precious virgin watersheds of British Columbia and the dry beds of the Colorado River Delta.

Exhibition runs through to November 23rd, 2013

Galerie Stefan Röpke
St. Apern-Strasse 17-21
50667 Cologne
Germany

www.galerie-roepke.de

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