The Association EPEKA, a social enterprise, is a partner in the exhibition, The Rise of Nationalism through the Photographic Lens, which will take place from 26 September to 5 October 2016.<\/p>\n
As part of the Maribor Festival of Photography and on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Maribor Photography Club, the photography exhibition “Lessons of 1991” opens today at the EPEKA Gallery, Koro\u0161ki cesta 8 in Maribor.<\/p>\n
The exhibition entitled “Lessons of 1991” is the first time that photographers from the whole region and some international guests have gathered in one place to show the war years on the soil of the former Yugoslavia. This exhibition presents the war photographers’ view of the reality they recorded while visiting political and actual battlefields from Slovenia, through Croatia, to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia. The exhibition does not reserve the right to be a universal historical account or to offer answers to unanswerable questions. The photographs on display played an important role during the war, shaping public opinion in each of the warring countries, as well as in the international public. They are particularly important for us today as the basis of collective memory, sometimes as unwanted traces of a long but still very painful past. The photographer’s view is never neutral, even though documentary photography makes a worthy attempt to present itself to us as a factual and objective image, the only possible representation of a given reality. Photographs are never identical, their layers have to be deciphered according to the circumstances in which they were taken, according to the impression they may have made at the moment of publication, according to the photographer’s motivation, worldview and ethics, and finally according to the eyes through which they are seen today. Unlike the professionals, domestic photographers could most often shoot the war from only one side, ‘their’ side, and in such a situation it is very difficult to exclude one’s own emotions and sense of belonging. Although all the photographers stress that they did their work professionally and objectively, the media often subordinated the photographs to their own political agendas and linked them to the political needs of the moment; even today, they are occasionally pulled out of the archives on important anniversaries. The photographs shown in this exhibition were taken on all sides of the conflict, with the original signatures of the photographers, without any intention of serving as a means to any end. To this day, all these photographs carry strong emotional charges and the photographers themselves return to them with the pain of reliving their own wartime nightmares.<\/p>\n
Participants: Darko Bandi\u0107, Nina Berman, Matko Biljak, Renato Bran\u0111olica, Milo\u0161 Cvetkovi\u0107, Tom Dubravec, Amel Emri\u0107, \u017deljko Ga\u0161parovi\u0107, Zijah Gafi\u0107, Velija Hasanbegovi\u0107, Toni Hnoj\u010dik, Filip Horvat, Romeo Ibri\u0161evi\u0107, Sr\u0111an Ili\u0107, Zoran Jovanovi\u0107 Ma\u010dak, Milomir Kova\u010devi\u0107 Stra\u0161ni, Borut Krajnc, Sa\u0161a Kralj, Rikard Larma, Paul Lowe, Anthony Loyd, Antun Mara\u010di\u0107, Simon Norfolk, Neboj\u0161a Radosavljevi\u0107 Raus, \u017deljko Sinobad, Tone Stojko, Sr\u0111an Sulejmanovi\u0107 Suki, Imre Szabo, Pavo Urban, Davor Vi\u0161nji\u0107, Bo\u017eidar Vuki\u010devi\u0107, Dragoljub Zamurovi\u0107<\/p>\n
Curator: Sandra Vitalji\u0107
\nExhibition design: Nina Ba\u0107un and Roberta Bratovi\u0107 \/ Oaza
\nOrgan Vida 2016<\/p>\n
More at www.epeka.si<\/a> \/ www.facebook.com<\/a> \/ www.lessonsfrom1991.eu<\/a> \/<\/p>\n The exhibition is on view until 5 October 2016.<\/p>\n Gallery opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm.<\/p>\n You are cordially invited!<\/p>\n\n\t\t