No Man´s Land
22.04 – 31.05. 2015
SEDF – Stredoeurópsky dom fotografie
SOLO EXHIBITION
Opening – 22.04.2015 o 19:00
22.05. – 31.05. 2015
The exhibition, entitled No Man’s Land by the Slovak photographer Andrea Juneková thematises the phenomenon of a dilapidated Renaissance palace in Moravany nad Váhom. This project is a result of several years of interest, supported by the author’s personal engagement. Using rather disturbing, documentary toned photographic images, she confronts the viewer with a bleak, almost absurd reality of abandoned historic buildings, devastated by vandalism and the natural elements. Most of all, she is interested in the identity of the site with which she identifies on the basis of her past.Juneková, as a perceptive observer, analyses this environment from two angles. Firstly, the vivid memories of moments spent there with her family, up to the threshold of her adulthood, which come alive in her. In this sense, the mansion represents a private area where she lived through specific experiences and to which she is emotionally engaged. It represents a sort of “spa for the soul”, a place full of energy, which influenced her in many ways. Secondly, the author, through individual photographic images, presents an emptied, cold, almost anonymous building without tenants and residents. She carefully and sensitively chooses places and nooks that appeal to her. She builds the very convincingly captured images only with her eye. Despite the sometimes bizarre compositions, the images contain nothing staged.Juneková’s emotional relic is intensified by criticism of the current state of historic sites to which society has significantly contributed. Through technically precise images she shows how the specific location of the manor house transformed, over the last seven years, into a sort of mythical and mysterious memorial space. In this context, the object of the photographs is a pitiful testimony of the period and its values. The artist thus reveals other topics that are specific to her work. Sadness and loneliness, the theme of relativity, death, finiteness and reflection on existential issues related to the passage of time are all present in these photographic images.Similarly, the author puts great emphasis on the visual aspect of the individual images, which she underlines through the installation itself; this is equally crucial for completion of the content of the message. She accentuates the final statement through their location and communication of individual components. The main idea is also illustrated by inter-medial inputs in the form of two suggestive animated videos. By using several authentic photographs from her childhood, Juneková simultaneously compares the past and present state of the mansion and its atmosphere.
curator: Martina Vyskupová
place: Prepošstská 4, SEDF – Midleuropean house of photography, Bratislava