Photonic Moments: Georgas, Sutera, Kastelic
image: Vangelis Georgas
Essay: Petra Čeh
* Petra Čeh (1985), a Slovene art historian and sociologist of culture. She is occupied with curatoring, writing and teaching.
** Slovenian Version
GEORGAS, SUTERA, KASTELIC
All three authors deal with “the other”, yet each one does so in his own way. Kastelic is occupied with his intimate other, while the other two series represent the stereotypes of the other as different and at the same time unwanted (Sutera) or even extraordinary (Georgas). All of them show a documentary of some state – a personal (Kastelic) or objective one (Sutera, Kastelic) and all of them reach into the human condition, constantly showing two poles: on one side as a story through the eyes of the other, on the other side the author's empathy in the situation. Kastelic's boyfriend risks being seen (in society) as inappropriate associations, Georgas wants to change a stereotype deeply ingrained in the consciousness, Sutera provokes with the meaning of the life lived by the Saharawi people and why those responsible for it do not see their own illusion. The authors are convincing with their work.
First award: Georgas, No such thing as a real Orient
“It could almost be said that the Orient is a European discovery, and since ancient times has been a place of romance, exotic creatures, unforgettable memories and landscapes, and extraordinary experiences. Not only is the Orient situated very close to Europe, it is also … its cultural rival … and the most performed image of the Other.” “The Orient”, as well as “The West” are both human constructions, where between both entities a relationship of power and domination appears, although neither of them actually exists. It is about a collective perception in which the West has always represented superiority. The Orient is a representation, an etiquette, and a stereotype. What about it today?
The Orient remains an archetype being ingrained in us for good. The media is still full of “oriental” images which show stereotypical visions to a mass of spectators, or they even want to upgrade it emotionally and use it for manipulation. The period of the 19th century, when Photography took over an inaugural role of affirmation of Orientalise, is named by Susan Sonstag as “the great age of photographic orientalism”. Photography meant a method used to show a reality of images. We need to understand the fact that photographers came from the West who were serving a country which colonised the Orient.
Vangelis Georgas focuses on Said's concept which claims that there is no such thing as a “real” or “genuine” Orient, and there is no necessary privilege of an “insider's” perspective over an “outsider's” one. India, as the author says, is still seen by the West as a romantic country of elephants, a land of snake charmers, card tricksters and mesmerists, strongly connected to its legends, fairytales and gods. The author wants to set dreamlike romance on a firm ground, and show the Orient in a different spotlight: as a country of a growing economic market and huge social differences where, in some places, mass poverty still exists. We are not directed to these places by a tourist map.
A distant place is an introductory “awareness” of the series. The photographs have been taken during travels since 2008. It is a multilayered image of the author's subjectively selected fragments, which cannot be replaced by romantic visions. The latter fades away with a look at an abandoned playground leasing out sounds of rusty rocking horses.
Black and white photographs appear as sharp, raw, perhaps even frightening, although the compositions and motives are thoughtful. We are filled with a sense of loneliness, untidiness and degradation. On one side the viewer experiences lonely buildings with their melancholy image of broken windows, on the other, the construction of new ones. Dramatically deep greyness has no desire to persuade us about the pomposity of oriental freedom. By the deck of a dirty coast, people and animals replace each other, all mute and staring. The chaos of a bird's flight, a statue or a doll wrapped in plastic, and a man waiting for his barber. It all seems like a single waiting for destiny. Pillars of bridges, waiting on their un-built trunks, testify to these changes, movements … but will the changes be better? Will it be as a wave that pushes a rider into a gallop? Vangelis Georgas' series is appropriate for all those who travel to “the Orient” with the image of ancient ideals, to experience catharsis. They will experience catharsis otherwise, but perhaps it won't be exactly the same as if they imagined it on the basis of European literal history.
Vangelis Georgas (1980), a Greek philosopher, is working on his PhD in Sociology in London at the moment. He has been working on Photography since 1998. Since 2006 he has been teaching History and Aesthetics of Photography. He has been awarded the European Central Bank Award 2007, Athens Photo Festival 2009 and the top prize at the Photonic moments 2012 festival in Ljubljana.
Second award: Sutera, Waiting for freedom
Do we know how many people live around the world, without a home country – expelled, besieged, in constant expectation of a better future, which will not happen? Sutera was spending some time in Spain when he encountered the problems of the Saharawi people in Western Sahara, even though Spain is a coloniser of these areas. Parts of Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria are territories where these people live, living there ever since the Arabs arrived.
Along with these people, who were also known as good merchants, camels appeared for the first time. Their caravans laden with salt and gold lead all the way to North Africa. Throughout history people mixed with each other and most of them assimilated into the Arab culture. In the year 1886, the first European colonisers started to set up the borders around the Sahara, which negatively affected the Saharawi tribes. These people haven't experienced the privilege of peaceful living so far. Hardly anyone knows that 2700 kilometres of the “green mile” of the Sahara is intersected by seven million landmines, buried in the 70s, when the land of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco. Thousands of Saharawi people were forced to leave their homes and search for sanctuary in Algeria. Those who stayed in their homes became personae non-gratae, not to mention human rights violations. Living conditions in the desert, which is their only habitat, are getting worse due to global warming – a lack of water, with temperatures reaching as high as 50 degrees Celsius during the year. The last time it rained was almost two years ago.
Sutera is mostly touched by inhuman conditions where people are forced to live, almost hopelessly expecting a better future. Nobody either endeavours or helps them. In their history, waiting gives no possibility, their identity and culture are dying, they are greeted by a torn flag. Colour photographs, which show the author's capture of the sky and the desert embrace, are subtle and tempt us with their pleasant sunlight. That is the reason why the photographs, despite their documentary quality, seem ambivalent: the nice colour of a girl's outfit still doesn't mean happiness, just as the sand doesn't cause unpleasant feelings unless we become aware of its hotness and the fact that it has turned into a dumping ground for rubbish and many dreams. Just like the scanty infrastructure, its inhabitants stare at the ground – all of them, old and young. Barbie on a notebook and a small TV are only dreams, happening somewhere in the distance, across this night sky where the stars are familiar with much pain. Playstation is only a sarcastic graffiti, and not a console, where children's laughter screeches.
Federico Sutera (1978), an Italian photographer, who studied Photography in Madrid, is working as a freelance photographer, mostly occupied with documentary Photography. He has been working on the Saharawi people's issues since 2009. Last year he won the Photonic moments award in Ljubljana.
Second award: Kastelic, Project: Girlfriend
Kastelic's series consists of visually unrelated photographs with continuity in the content. The author was persuaded by Freud's saying that reality can be transformed. The series goes around the thought that "the most unbearable features are eliminated by others that are in conformity with one's own wishes".
The geographical distance that sat him and her apart, transforms into his obsession of her, into a recreation of unreal reality, or as Freud said “into erotomania”. Kastelic deals with different stages of his facing of reality, while continuing to ask himself when reactions start to go over the limit of what is objectively allowed.
The first part of the series shows us only fragments and remains which represent faded memories of time spent together, but the souvenirs are bizarre (nails, underpants, hair, a collection of chats, dried blood). His subjective experience/handling is an objective pathology. Kastelic takes photos of the souvenirs as a kind of still life, which represent a metaphysical portrait of a person. These are photographs of items need to be joined to create a red thread. Due to a black background the colours are full, while the photographs seem dramatic and monumental. Kastelic is wondering about the questions of morality, reality, pursuit and admiration, as well as the border between love and obsession. In continuation, we feel the need to control the other person, to supervise his or her life: the photographs, which arose while pursuing, seem to be rough and unsharp where we can feel the "paparazzi effect". As it is in reality, the desired person in each photograph is "far away". Any deviation from his ideas leads to obsession, realized in daydreaming about a common future: a photograph of imaginary children, looking gentle and harmonic. Pain and obsessive control lead him to the creation of a new personal reality. He even sets the altar for her, where the hearts on her figure are countless. The altar represents the height point of his obsession. As though he offers himself to be a sacrificial lamb, therefore an emotional turning point appears: a (self) portrait of the accident and the collection of tears becomes proof of his devotion, which represents suffering and sacrifice at the same time. His ego doesn't let others go or make an alternative choice to go somewhere else. His vulnerability tears children's faces; out of her happy face arises acupuncture of projected anger.
Here the story comes to an end – the author does not offer any continuation. We think about it on our own. An unanswered question also remains as to whether the story is real or fictional, perhaps even autobiographical? As the whole story revolves around the girlfriend, we do not really get to know a boyfriend. As he rather lends himself to fictional essences, we get the feeling that he is not important enough for himself. And the latter himself is the main core of the story – he, who doesn't love himself.
Jure Kastelic (1992), a Slovene photographer, a student of Photography in Brighton, UK. He has taken part in several group exibitions in his home country and abroad. He has won three important awards, the National Geographic 2006, EMZIN 2010, Photonic Moments 2012.
references
1 Edward W. Said, Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the orient, SH, Ljubljana 1996, pp. 11 – 12.
2 Susan Sontag, On Photography, Penguin, London 1977, p. 89.
3 Eve Tam Mei-yee, Orientalism and photography, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 2002, p. 5.
4 Sigmundt Freud, Civilization, society and religion: group psychology, civilization and its discontents and other works Freud, Harmondsworth : Penguin, London 1991, p. 269.
© 2013 Petra Ceh and VASA