Noorderlicht

Beyond Walls

Eastern Europe after 1989

ancillary show / 7 sep 26 oct 2008

Alen Aligrudic

• MONTENEGRO – THE YOUNGEST OLD NATION IN THE WORLD (Montenegro, 2007)

  In 2006 Montenegro was the last of the republics in the former Yugoslavia to proclaim its independence. Alen Aligrudic wanted to document the changes after that historic moment, and travelled through the largely empty country. It faces a future which, according to him, is anything but rosy. From the first day of independence, foreign investors have been buying up the land and real estate. The Mediterranean climate makes the ground so desirable that the lure of turning a quick profit on it has now destroyed rural life and the agrarian sector. At the same time the change-over to a knowledge and service economy has proven difficult. Many former residents of the countryside are also moving to the coast or the capital, Podgorica, leaving rural areas even more depopulated than they were before.

  

• MONTENEGRO – THE YOUNGEST OLD NATION IN THE WORLD (Montenegro, 2007)

  

• MONTENEGRO – THE YOUNGEST OLD NATION IN THE WORLD (Montenegro, 2007)

  

• MONTENEGRO – THE YOUNGEST OLD NATION IN THE WORLD (Montenegro, 2007)

  

• MONTENEGRO – THE YOUNGEST OLD NATION IN THE WORLD (Montenegro, 2007)

  

Andrej Balco

• SUBURBS (Slovakia, 2004)

  More than two million Slovaks – over a third of the population – live in large, blocky apartment complexes. In the 1970s about 97% of the new construction in Slovakia was comprised of such residential blocks. (In comparison: in what is now the Czech Republic that figure was 70%, and in Poland 50%.) Andrej Balco photographed daily life in these Slovakian flats. This led to the question of whether the lives of the residents were as uniform as the buildings were. In the midst of the broken mailboxes and the endless concrete he found surprisingly varied and lively scenes. In the grey, prefabricated world everyone tries to get a little color in his or her life, a process in which tradition and contemporary consumerism join hands.

  

• SUBURBS (Slovakia, 2004)

  

• SUBURBS (Slovakia, 2004)

  

• SUBURBS (Slovakia, 2004)

  

• SUBURBS (Slovakia, 2004)

  

Ivan Blazhev

• MACEDONIA DREAMING (Macedonia, 2004)

  Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1991. For Macedonia too the difficult transition to capitalism and democracy began. Initially the country was able to stand apart from the Yugoslavian civil wars, but ultimately it was not able to escape ethnic tensions and military conflicts. To this day Macedonia is pictured in the media as a directionless and corrupt land. Ivan Blazhev wants to disprove this stereotype. He spent the two years on the eve of the fifteenth anniversary of the country's independence travelling through the land of his birth, photographing the people, their activities, funerals, parties and all the other things which compose daily life in Macedonia. In this way he wants to show that his country is an infinite collection of personal lives rather than a geographical and political cliché.

  

• MACEDONIA DREAMING (Macedonia, 2004)

  

• MACEDONIA DREAMING (Macedonia, 2004)

  

• MACEDONIA DREAMING (Macedonia, 2004)

  

• MACEDONIA DREAMING (Macedonia, 2004)

  

Anja Bohnhof

• DDR – MUSEUM VIEWS (Germany, 2003-2008)

  After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the East Germans too wanted to benefit from Western consumer culture as quickly as possible. In one fell swoop all their old utensils went out with the rubbish. Today these utensils, along with furniture, dinner sets, clothing and appliances, can be seen in museums created just for them. Collectively these objects, which often bear witness to the hope for a better life, afford a picture of daily life in the DDR. Among many East Germans the displays call up feelings of nostalgia ('Ostalgie'). West Germans, on the other hand, respond with pique or ridicule. Anja Bohnhof photographed several of these privately-run DDR Museums in Berlin, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia.

  

• DDR – MUSEUM VIEWS (Germany, 2003-2008)

  

• DDR – MUSEUM VIEWS (Germany, 2003-2008)

  

• DDR – MUSEUM VIEWS (Germany, 2003-2008)

  

• DDR – MUSEUM VIEWS (Germany, 2003-2008)

  

Irma Bulkens

• WAITING FOR TOURISM (Romania, 2008)

  As a brand new member of the European Union, Romania has great expectations for Western tourism. But as of yet the flood of holiday-makers has failed to materialise. Many large restaurants, set up by hopeful entrepreneurs, are left with tables spread but no diners. At the most, the space is filled by noisy 'turbo-folk beat' coming from crackly loudspeakers or a showy flatscreen TV. The staff is comprised largely of young people who were born after the revolution. They kill time by SMSing, smoking cigarettes and staring emptily into space. Irma Bulkens portrayed this younger generation of Romanians, for whom the heritage of communism consists primarily of waiting.

  

• WAITING FOR TOURISM (Romania, 2008)

  

• WAITING FOR TOURISM (Romania, 2008)

  

Bevis Fusha

• A SLOW AND MOTIONLESS DEATH (Albania, 2005)

  In the communist era the Albanian region of Porto Romano was an important centre for the chemical industry. The chief products were leather, petrol, metals and pesticides. Since then the industry has almost disappeared, leaving behind 20,000 tons of chemical waste. The drinking water, vegetables and milk that are consumed daily by the 15,000 Albanians who live in Porto Romano are all seriously contaminated. Rather than move to a poorer region, however, they choose to risk damage to their health. 'Here we can at least make a living,' says a fifty-year-old shepherd. 'What else can we do?' In the meantime, leukaemia and lung and skin illnesses have become commonplace. Far from evacuating the area, the government on the contrary is encouraging migration by building new houses there. There is also discussion about reopening the chemical plants.

  

• A SLOW AND MOTIONLESS DEATH (Albania, 2005)

  

• A SLOW AND MOTIONLESS DEATH (Albania, 2005)

  

• A SLOW AND MOTIONLESS DEATH (Albania, 2005)

  

• A SLOW AND MOTIONLESS DEATH (Albania, 2005)

  

Balazs Gardi

• GYPSIES (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, 2005-2006)

  Several decades ago nomadic gypsies were still to be found throughout Europe. Today their numbers have declined dramatically and their territory is limited. The change in their situation came with the disappearance of the Iron Curtain. Since then the relatively prosperous Roma and other gypsy groups have fallen into extreme poverty. Ecological, economic and political factors threaten their traditional romantic existence. As a result of discrimination, inadequate schooling and the disappearance of state-owned industrial and agricultural businesses, East European gypsies are faced with massive unemployment, health problems, illiteracy and poor living conditions. Many try to keep their head above water by begging, low-paid jobs and traditional gypsy professions such as wood carving and fortune telling.

  

• GYPSIES (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, 2005-2006)

  

• GYPSIES (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, 2005-2006)

  

• GYPSIES (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, 2005-2006)

  

• GYPSIES (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, 2005-2006)

  

George Georgiou

• TRANSIT UKRAINE (The Ukraine, 2005)

  After the disintegration of the Soviet Union the Baltic states were successful in their introduction of democracy. The other former Soviet republics generally had to deal with corrupt and autocratic regimes. In Georgia, the Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan what have come to be called the Rose, Orange and Tulip Revolutions eventually led to some reforms and democracy. But tensions remain, not only through their position between the expanding West and a newly assertive Russia, but through a succession of political crises. For instance, the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine has not brought about the desired political and economic stability. George Georgiou travelled around the Ukraine on public transportation to photograph the daily struggle its population faces just to survive. He saw travelling that way as a fitting comparison with the transition to new systems and the continual changes in the Ukraine.

  

• TRANSIT UKRAINE (The Ukraine, 2005)

  

• TRANSIT UKRAINE (The Ukraine, 2005)

  

• TRANSIT UKRAINE (The Ukraine, 2005)

  

• TRANSIT UKRAINE (The Ukraine, 2005)

  

Claudio Hils

• NEULAND (Germany, 1989-1999)

  Claudio Hils documented the first decade of the new Germany, which he calls NEULAND. After the fall of the Wall in 1989 the mood was euphoric: from that moment the East and West would become one, and the West German social model would symbolise the end result. Hils was deeply sceptical about the optimistic mood, and decided to do his own investigation. In NEULAND he shows that the discrepancies between East and West Germany have indeed become smaller, but they certainly have not disappeared. Traditional differences have still not been overcome, and provoke mutual resentment. The then extremely positive mood in the German media to a large extent ignored the complexity of the reunification process.

  

• NEULAND (Germany, 1989-1999)

  

• NEULAND (Germany, 1989-1999)

  

• NEULAND (Germany, 1989-1999)

  

• NEULAND (Germany, 1989-1999)

  

Rip Hopkins

• RIGAS CIRKS (Latvia, 2003)

  The Latvian Riga Circus, founded in 1888, is one of the oldest existing circuses in the world. It experienced its golden era during the occupation by the Soviet Union. The physical strength and skill of the circus performers served to convince the world of the superiority of communism. Under the Soviet regime Latvia was forced to accept large numbers of Russian immigrants. Half of the circus personnel are still of Russian descent – as are half of Latvia's population. Generally born in Latvia, after the fall of the Iron Curtain these Russians have been refused Latvian passports. That makes travel impossible, except to the 'fatherland' from which they are estranged. Many young Russian acrobats therefore dream of a future in the West. The Riga Circus has in the meanwhile lost its state subsidies. It is expected that its facilities will be torn down, so that its prominent location can become the site for office buildings.

  

• RIGAS CIRKS (Latvia, 2003)

  

• RIGAS CIRKS (Latvia, 2003)

  

• RIGAS CIRKS (Latvia, 2003)

  

• RIGAS CIRKS (Latvia, 2003)

  

Irwin

• NSK GUARDS (Slovenia, 1998-2008)

  Since 1997 the Slovenian art group Irwin has been photographing real soldiers before the flag of the imaginary NSK state. Soldiers from Albania were first, followed by others from Croatia, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic. Today the counter stands at twelve different armies. NSK stands for Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art), an alliance that began to attract followers in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. In addition to Irwin the music group Laibach, the theatre group Sester Scipion Nasice and the designers' collective New Collectivism were part of NSK. The German name was deliberately chosen (as was Laibach, the name the Nazis gave to Ljubljana) in order to emphasise the traditional influence of Germany on Slovenian art, culture and history. This influence was precisely what the communist regime in Yugoslavia denied. Like the Balkan states during the civil war in Yugoslavia, NSK is a virtual state, but one with its own passports, a flag, insignia, consultants, and an embassy. The NSK symbol is derived from the swastika and the black cross of the Russian artist Malevich.

  

• NSK GUARDS (Slovenia, 1998-2008)

  

• NSK GUARDS (Slovenia, 1998-2008)

  

• NSK GUARDS (Slovenia, 1998-2008)

  

• NSK GUARDS (Slovenia, 1998-2008)

  

Václav Jirásek

• INDUSTRIA (Czech Republic, 2006)

  In what is today the Czech Republic, as in so many former Eastern Bloc countries, heavy industry was emphatically present in modern history as an icon of socialist progress. Václav Jirásek asks what can still be found of it in the post-communist era. He focuses particularly on firms from the 1950s, '60s and '70s that are still operating. Often they are balancing on the edge of bankruptcy, or are just at the point of being modernized. Jirásek photographed the architecture, which is entirely in the service of functionalism and derives a certain beauty from that fact. He also did portraits of the workers who, marked by heavy labor, almost blend in with their daily work environment.

  

• INDUSTRIA (Czech Republic, 2006)

  

• INDUSTRIA (Czech Republic, 2006)

  

• INDUSTRIA (Czech Republic, 2006)

  

• INDUSTRIA (Czech Republic, 2006)

  

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas

• A PORTRAIT OF KRAZIAI (Lithuania, 2001-2008)

  Kražiai, a small city in the north-west of Lithuania, is inseparably linked with Lithuanian identity. For example, it played a prominent role in the Christianisation of the country, and in the development of Lithuanian poetry and science. Kražiai is also a symbol of national resistance. As the principal seat of the Lithuanian church the small city offered fierce resistance to the Russian tzar's Cossacks. Today there is little of this glorious past to be seen. Kražiai has to deal with a population that is ageing, as younger people emigrate to seek a better life in Western Europe. Their tickets are bought with money from the sale of milk at well under the market price, which gravely damages the city's most important economic activity. Thus, like so many cities in rural Lithuania, Kražiai is wrestling with the difficult transition to a new era.

  

• A PORTRAIT OF KRAZIAI (Lithuania, 2001-2008)

  

• A PORTRAIT OF KRAZIAI (Lithuania, 2001-2008)

  

• A PORTRAIT OF KRAZIAI (Lithuania, 2001-2008)

  

• A PORTRAIT OF KRAZIAI (Lithuania, 2001-2008)

  

Wytske van Keulen

• ANDZELIKA (Poland, 2006)

  Andzelika, a seventeen-year-old Polish girl, is facing a difficult choice: should she join her parents to live in The Netherlands, or remain in her familiar environment in Poland? Andzelika's parents, like many other Poles, left for The Netherlands because of higher wages and a better job market. The photographer Wytske van Keulen met Andzelika and became fascinated with the situation in which the teenager finds herself. On the one side there is a beautiful but sometimes dissatisfied adolescent who dreams of a better life with her family in The Netherlands. On the other there is the carefree adolescent who wants to stay with her friends in Poland.

  

• ANDZELIKA (Poland, 2006)

  

• ANDZELIKA (Poland, 2006)

  

• ANDZELIKA (Poland, 2006)

  

• ANDZELIKA (Poland, 2006)

  

Witold Krassowski

• AFTER-IMAGES OF POLAND (Poland, 1989-1997)

  With the collapse of communism in Europe old certainties disappeared like a breath. The social, cultural and economic reality in Poland, frozen for fifty years, also had to quickly adapt to the rest of the world. Industrial workers, the vanguard of the revolution, disappeared from the stage, ethnic groups were involved in massive migrations and unemployment soared, particularly at the village level. The unrest led to many protest marches. On the other hand, previously forbidden street trading now flourished. Young people, energetic and unencumbered by the past, seized their chance. For instance, they tried to escape the drabness of life by beauty contests. A class of nouveaux riches rapidly emerged, which imposed its consumerism and coarse taste as a new norm for the rest of the population.

  

• AFTER-IMAGES OF POLAND (Poland, 1989-1997)

  

• AFTER-IMAGES OF POLAND (Poland, 1989-1997)

  

• AFTER-IMAGES OF POLAND (Poland, 1989-1997)

  

• AFTER-IMAGES OF POLAND (Poland, 1989-1997)

  

Masha Matijevic

• RUSEVINE (Croatia, 2008)

  In Croatia the recent past is still all too much in evidence in the landscape. For instance, one finds many empty houses, that often are the property of the Serbian minority. Sometimes they are part of entire abandoned villages, sometimes the neighbouring houses are still occupied, and sometimes they stand isolated on hills sown with anti-personnel mines. Masha Matijevic surveys these 'modern ruins'. For her, the rusevine (ruins) are a symbol for the way Croatia is looking to the future, and dealing with its own past, scarred by way and ethnic conflicts. On the one hand, the dwellings are being fixed up as part of the moves toward Croatia's desired admission to the EU; on the other, they are left undisturbed as remains of a past which people would rather not discuss.

  

• RUSEVINE (Croatia, 2008)

  

• RUSEVINE (Croatia, 2008)

  

• RUSEVINE (Croatia, 2008)

  

• RUSEVINE (Croatia, 2008)

  

Lala Meredith-Vula

• SHIFTING BORDERS (Great Britain, 2006-2007)

  The British photographer Lala Meredith-Vula was born in Bosnia. Her mother is of British descent, her father an Albanian Kosovar. In SHIFTING BORDERS she makes a personal journey through British, Albanian and Kosovan culture. At the same time she tells the story of Albanian immigrants and refugees all around the world. In a mixture of nostalgia, dreams and homesickness she investigates themes that are inseparably linked with her identity: the transition from war to peace, from tradition to modernity and from communism to capitalism. Meredith-Vula photographed herself and a number of models in the landscape in traditional Albanian costumes. The one moment there is a sense of a timeless whole, the next of contradictions and disjunction – but yesterday and today always remain visibly interwoven.

  

• SHIFTING BORDERS (Great Britain, 2006-2007)

  

• SHIFTING BORDERS (Great Britain, 2006-2007)

  

• SHIFTING BORDERS (Great Britain, 2006-2007)

  

• SHIFTING BORDERS (Great Britain, 2006-2007)

  

Vittorio Mortarotti

• TRACKS_01_SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2008)

  TRACKS is a series of wanderings around the world by photographer Vittorio Mortarotti. The goal is not to discover a place, or even an identity, but chiefly to experience the realization that we are always under way. Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia Herzegovina, was the first destination. With his camera Mortarotti wandered through 'sniper alley', the infamous fifteen kilometer long strip from Butmir to the center of Sarajevo. During the Yugoslavian war this was the only route to food, medicine and weapons for thousands of Bosnians, but in traveling it they exposed themselves to heavy Serbian fire. These horrors are to be seen in the photographs of Bosnian film material from 1992, images which will forever be linked with 'sniper alley'.

  

• TRACKS_01_SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2008)

  

• TRACKS_01_SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2008)

  

• TRACKS_01_SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2008)

  

• TRACKS_01_SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2008)

  

Vesselina Nikolaeva

• NO MAN'S LAND (Bulgaria, 2004)

  Until 1989 the Bulgarian-Turkish border was the extreme south-east limit of the East Bloc. The border zone was heavily guarded and no one could enter it. It was also absolutely forbidden to film or photograph along the border. In 2004 Vesselina Nikolaeva was the first person since World War II to receive permission to document it. She found a desolate terrain that still clearly bore the scars of a decades-long military presence. Since then these have all been wiped out. So as to not be reminded of its communist past, Bulgaria has stripped its European borders of every reference to the Iron Curtain.

  

• NO MAN'S LAND (Bulgaria, 2004)

  

• NO MAN'S LAND (Bulgaria, 2004)

  

• NO MAN'S LAND (Bulgaria, 2004)

  

• NO MAN'S LAND (Bulgaria, 2004)

  

Lucia Nimcova

• UNOFFICIAL (Slovakia, 2007)

  Lucia Nimcova was twelve when the East Bloc ceased to exist. She now is seeking to discover what influence growing up within the communist system had on her. Through visual research she hopes to expose the form and structure of daily life under communism. She visited her birthplace, the Slovakian town of Humenné, and in the Regional Cultural Centre there found a photo archive of cultural events. The photographs in it were conspicuous for their indifference, having, for instance, little concern for composition and exposure. The person who made the photos was Jurai Kammer. Nimcova decided to photograph all the current cultural events in the same manner. She saw new façades, streets and sports complexes, but to her surprise still saw the same townspeople and interiors. The façade may have changed, but the community remained the same. Everyone still conformed to their role and the prime concern was still fitting smoothly into the larger whole. In Humenné the primary legacy of the communist era proved to be apathy.

  

• UNOFFICIAL (Slovakia, 2007)

  

• UNOFFICIAL (Slovakia, 2007)

  

• UNOFFICIAL (Slovakia, 2007)

  

• UNOFFICIAL (Slovakia, 2007)

  

Christoph Otto

• THE ESTONIANS (Estonia, 2003-2008)

  Estonia is a country in transition. It is a symbol for the situation in which most of the former Eastern Bloc countries find themselves. On the one side there is the inheritance of old European traditions and Soviet influences, on the other there is hope for a new future, free of Russia, with opportunities in the world market. At present that makes Estonia a divided land, according to Christoph Otto. Depending on where one looks you can imagine yourself in the past or in the future. Estonia tries to steer a middle course between hope and nostalgia – summed up by Otto in the words 'melancholy vitality' – as it seeks an identity of its own.

  

• THE ESTONIANS (Estonia, 2003-2008)

  

• THE ESTONIANS (Estonia, 2003-2008)

  

• THE ESTONIANS (Estonia, 2003-2008)

  

• THE ESTONIANS (Estonia, 2003-2008)

  

Sylvia Plachy

• SELF-PORTRAIT WITH COWS GOING HOME (Hungary, 1956-2004)

  Not long before the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Sylvia Plachy, then thirteen years old, fled Hungary with her parents. The only things that she could take with her were one small suitcase and her teddy bear. She had to assume that she would never again see the country where she had been born. But much to her surprise, as a naturalised American she received permission time after time to revisit the country. During the forty years in which she paid visits to Hungary she assembled a photo archive from her own work and her family's photo albums. The result, a search for a lost childhood with Eastern European history as its backdrop, is just as mysterious and unpredictable as memory. The title – after the book that Aperture published in 2004 – refers to a self-portrait of Plachy in the rear-view mirror of an auto, with a farmer driving cows in the background.

  

• SELF-PORTRAIT WITH COWS GOING HOME (Hungary, 1956-2004)

  

• SELF-PORTRAIT WITH COWS GOING HOME (Hungary, 1956-2004)

  

• SELF-PORTRAIT WITH COWS GOING HOME (Hungary, 1956-2004)

  

• SELF-PORTRAIT WITH COWS GOING HOME (Hungary, 1956-2004)

  

Przemyslaw Pokrycki

• RITES OF PASSAGE (Poland, 2007)

  A rite of passage marks a change, the beginning of a new chapter in life. The person who undergoes the rite receives a new identity; the ritual often remains the same for centuries. Przemysław Pokrycki photographed contemporary Roman Catholic rituals in Poland. He identified himself as a guest and a photographer, so the role he played was clear for everyone. There was a lot of posing, and the families themselves determined what they wanted seen in the photographs, and what not. Ninety percent of Poles are Catholic. The population therefore attaches considerable importance to rituals such as baptism, making first communion, marriages and funerals. Sometimes, says Pokrycki, it appears that they are a substitute for the now vanished socialist rituals.

  

• RITES OF PASSAGE (Poland, 2007)

  

• RITES OF PASSAGE (Poland, 2007)

  

• RITES OF PASSAGE (Poland, 2007)

  

• RITES OF PASSAGE (Poland, 2007)

  

Dana Popa

• NOT NATASHA (Moldavia, 2006)

  Since the fall of the Iron Curtain trafficking in women has become the most profitable illegal activity in Eastern Europe. Women from there are sold into Western Europe, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, among other destinations. Victims tell horrifying stories of exploitation, rape and abuse. Often they become infected with sexually transmitted diseases such as hepatitis or AIDS. Moldavia is a main source for Eastern European sex slaves. Dana Popa photographed a shelter there for women who had been freed from their 'handlers' and returned to their country. Popa wanted to record how these women live in secret with a 'broken soul': they cannot tell their mother or husband what happened to them, for fear of being thrown out on the street.

  

• NOT NATASHA (Moldavia, 2006)

  

• NOT NATASHA (Moldavia, 2006)

  

• NOT NATASHA (Moldavia, 2006)

  

• NOT NATASHA (Moldavia, 2006)

  

Katarina Radovic

• A HUSBAND IN PARIS (Serbia, 2007)

  A HUSBAND IN PARIS is a playful commentary on the marriages of convenience that many women from the former East Bloc enter into in order to get to the rich West. Katarina Radovic plays one of these women, seeking a husband in Paris, the 'city of her dreams'. She asks random men on the street if they would want to marry her. After getting acquainted briefly the men were photographed on the spot with her. The photos are intended to suggest that they are a happily married couple. The speed with which the picture is made symbolises the unabashed haste that Eastern European women have in arranging such marriages. It also touches on the apparent unconcern with which such opportunistic partners regard the cultural differences that are generally involved in such marriages.

  

• A HUSBAND IN PARIS (Serbia, 2007)

  

• A HUSBAND IN PARIS (Serbia, 2007)

  

• A HUSBAND IN PARIS (Serbia, 2007)

  

• A HUSBAND IN PARIS (Serbia, 2007)

  

Agnieszka Rayss

• AMERICAN DREAM (Poland, 2004-2007)

  East Bloc countries had two TV channels at the most, and no glossy magazines. Freedom of expression and the free market were unattainable. After the fall of the Iron Curtain the whole region fell into the grip of American mass culture. An avalanche of new TV broadcasters, magazines, advertising and consumer goods brought about a cultural revolution. Trends in the field of fashion and lifestyle were avidly copied, Hollywood stars became the new role models. Attitudes regarding sexuality also became more liberated. As a prominent target audience, particularly women were susceptible to the appeal of American popular culture. Agnieszka Rayss, who is still surprised at the speed with which the capitalist dream was embraced and the loss of old values, documented the new, Western-oriented woman in the former East Bloc.

  

• AMERICAN DREAM (Poland, 2004-2007)

  

• AMERICAN DREAM (Poland, 2004-2007)

  

• AMERICAN DREAM (Poland, 2004-2007)

  

• AMERICAN DREAM (Poland, 2004-2007)

  

Péter Rákosi

• LEFT-RIGHT (Hungary, 1996-1999)

  Péter Rákosi photographed political demonstrations in the new Hungary, after the fall of communism. He chose dates on which the achievements of the communist and fascist past were celebrated, such as March 15, October 23 and May 1. The original meaning of the dates is related to revolution and class struggle. After 1989 these were however generally exchanged for contemporary concerns. Only the old iconography continued to exist. In this way the demonstrators presented themselves as relics of the past and as the losers of the post-communist era. With his 'post-historic' series LEFT-RIGHT Rákosi wants to definitively bury the past.

  

• LEFT-RIGHT (Hungary, 1996-1999)

  

• LEFT-RIGHT (Hungary, 1996-1999)

  

• LEFT-RIGHT (Hungary, 1996-1999)

  

• LEFT-RIGHT (Hungary, 1996-1999)

  

Frank Rothe

• RUNNING THROUGH THE WIND (The Ukraine, 2004)

  Only the most exemplary members of the youth movements in the East Bloc were permitted to attend the Artek summer camp in the Crimea. Twelve-year-old Frank Rothe was nominated for it, but not selected. In the years that followed, he avoided Russia. Because of having to learn Russian as a child, he had an aversion to the country. In 1992 Rothe ended up in Russia by chance, became fascinated with the political revolution there, and decided to learn the language well at last. In order to get a better picture of Russian youth, he visited Artek in 2004. It was now a summer camp the size of a small city, where children whose parents could pay for the privilege could spend their vacation. Rothe photographed the holiday-makers unobtrusively, without tripods or flash units. Although the political dimension had disappeared, for Rothe it was a step back in time. Life in Artek still moves more slowly than in the West, and a sense of community is still central. Rothe titled his series RUNNING THROUGH THE WIND because the youth of Artek now have to manage without the certainties and clear-cut future promised in the communist era.

  

• RUNNING THROUGH THE WIND (The Ukraine, 2004)

  

• RUNNING THROUGH THE WIND (The Ukraine, 2004)

  

• RUNNING THROUGH THE WIND (The Ukraine, 2004)

  

• RUNNING THROUGH THE WIND (The Ukraine, 2004)

  

Igor Savchenko

• FACELESS and MYSTERIA (Belarus, 1989-1992)

  The snapshots that Igor Savchenko draws upon were made in the 1930s, '40's and '50s. By scratching or bleaching them and removing elements from them and adding others to them, Savchenko gives them new meaning. Often only the outlines of a person and his/her relations to others and the surroundings remain. Glances and gestures become mysterious codes. The viewer is carried back to the moment at which the photograph was made, as if listening to an old gramophone record on which each cough in the auditorium can be heard. In the Western world Savchenko's work is related to the destruction of the individual by the Soviet regime. In extreme cases Soviet citizens burned their family albums on their own initiative. With images from the series FACELESS and MYSTERIA Savchenko pauses to honour the fact that personal memories do not yield themselves to collectivisation.

  

• FACELESS and MYSTERIA (Belarus, 1989-1992)

  

• FACELESS and MYSTERIA (Belarus, 1989-1992)

  

• FACELESS and MYSTERIA (Belarus, 1989-1992)

  

• FACELESS and MYSTERIA (Belarus, 1989-1992)

  

Erasmus Schröter

• BUNKER AND WAFFEN (Germany, 1994-2005)

  Along the coast of Europe, from Germany to the Spanish border, there are still traces of the Atlantic Wall to be found today. Presently elements of this defensive line built by the Nazis serve primarily as pissoirs for beach walkers and repositories for their discarded beer cans. Erasmus Schröter lighted a number of these half-hidden bunkers with coloured theatre spotlights, lending them a mysterious beauty, and making them the centre of interest. Later, in the forests of East Germany he stumbled on material that the Soviet Army had left behind in its hasty retreat in 1990. Abandoning tanks, barracks and aeroplanes was cheaper than dismantling them or taking them with them. Schröter handled these objects in the same manner as he had the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall. In this way socialist kitsch and weapons become historic sculptures, made by underpaid Soviet soldiers.

  

• BUNKER AND WAFFEN (Germany, 1994-2005)

  

• BUNKER AND WAFFEN (Germany, 1994-2005)

  

• BUNKER AND WAFFEN (Germany, 1994-2005)

  

• BUNKER AND WAFFEN (Germany, 1994-2005)

  

Flore-Aël Surun

• SURVIVAL UNDER (Romania, 1998)

  There are many street children in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. They live in groups of from five to ten persons, are between 9 and 22 years old, and obtain what money they can by stealing, begging, and sometimes working. They come out of orphanages, or from families with a history of alcoholism and domestic violence. To a large extent they live underground, in a system of tunnels carrying steam pipes. They shelter there, sniffing glue, listening to music from stolen radios, and dreaming of a better life. A cardboard box or a construction of wire and wooden planks serves as a bed. The light comes from candles they have stolen from local churches. Flowers stuck in a broken bottle contribute further to the illusion of a real and warm home.

  

• SURVIVAL UNDER (Romania, 1998)

  

• SURVIVAL UNDER (Romania, 1998)

  

• SURVIVAL UNDER (Romania, 1998)

  

• SURVIVAL UNDER (Romania, 1998)

  

Andrew Testa

• KOSOVO AFTERMATH (Kosovo, 2006-2007)

  Since the Yugoslavian civil war, the situation between ethnic Albanians and the Serbian minority in Kosovo has been tense. There are still countless traces of the outbursts of violence there, from deserted Serbian villages shattered by gunfire to the mass graves of executed Albanian Muslims. Kosovo declared its independence in February, 2008; Serbia still regards the region as one of its provinces. An international military presence keeps the two groups apart. Andrew Testa photographed contemporary Kosovo, the status of which is still unclear. He saw how public swimming pools are accessible only to a particular ethnic group, and how in the streets the photographs displayed there of the 2500 Kosovars who are still missing are bleaching from the weather.

  

• KOSOVO AFTERMATH (Kosovo, 2006-2007)

  

• KOSOVO AFTERMATH (Kosovo, 2006-2007)

  

• KOSOVO AFTERMATH (Kosovo, 2006-2007)

  

• KOSOVO AFTERMATH (Kosovo, 2006-2007)

  

Karel Tuma

• YOUNG ALTERNATIVE – AFTER 8 YEARS OF FREEDOM (Czechoslovakia, 1997)

  Karel Tůma observes that a decade after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, there are few results to be seen from the plans for a new, just society. After several euphoric years self-interest, materialism and intolerance dominate the picture. The desire to become a member of the EU overshadows questions like social equality, preserving national culture and concern for the environment. Only leftist youth seem to still get worked up about the consequences of globalisation and the continually growing gap between the rich and poor. They are the ones who will have to get politicians and society to change course on these issues, Tůma suggests. In the streets of Prague he documents their struggle, which is accompanied by numerous clashes with the police.

  

• YOUNG ALTERNATIVE – AFTER 8 YEARS OF FREEDOM (Czechoslovakia, 1997)

  

• YOUNG ALTERNATIVE – AFTER 8 YEARS OF FREEDOM (Czechoslovakia, 1997)

  

• YOUNG ALTERNATIVE – AFTER 8 YEARS OF FREEDOM (Czechoslovakia, 1997)

  

• YOUNG ALTERNATIVE – AFTER 8 YEARS OF FREEDOM (Czechoslovakia, 1997)

  

Yordan Yordanov

• BULGARIAN PRISONS (Bulgaria, 1994)

  After the fall of communism Yordan Yordanov was the first to be given permission to photograph life in Bulgarian prisons. He began in the central prison in Sofia, the capital, where he encountered degrading conditions. After that he visited Belene, which had functioned as a concentration camp under communism. Complexes in Razdelena, Bobov Dol and Kremkovtzi followed. Yordanov also photographed the women's prison in Silven, where he was surprised at the responsiveness of the women confined there. 'Closed environments for open souls,' Yordanov called the Bulgarian prisons: places where only ostensibly nothing happens.

  

• BULGARIAN PRISONS (Bulgaria, 1994)

  

• BULGARIAN PRISONS (Bulgaria, 1994)

  

• BULGARIAN PRISONS (Bulgaria, 1994)

  

• BULGARIAN PRISONS (Bulgaria, 1994)