Noorderlicht

Behind Walls

Eastern Europe before and beyond 1989 - Catalogue Photofestival 2008

Behind Walls - Eastern Europe before and beyond 1989 is the catalogue of the fifteenth Noorderlicht International Photofestival, 2008, with the works of all photographers from the exhibitions Behind Walls, Transition and Beyond Walls. Never before has photography from all the former Eastern Bloc countries been brought together in a large-scale presentation.

Almost twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall Noorderlicht reveals a forgotten wealth of impressive and historically interesting photography, providing a unique insight into life and photography under the repressive regimes behind the Iron Curtain.

A new Eastern Europe has arisen since 1989. With a critical gaze a new generation of photographers from East and West investigate the enormous social changes in the young democracies. They tell an intriguing story of a world full of contradictions, where the heroic worker has had to transform himself into a critical consumer and a dynamic present still bears the scars of an emotionally charged past.

The festival Behind Walls is the final edition of a quintet on non-Western photography. The previous editions included Africa Inside, Mundos Creados, Nazar and Another Asia.

Photographers Behind Walls and Transition: Attalai Gabor (HU), Svetlana Bahchevanova (BG/US), Andrzej Baturo (PL), Michal Cala (PL), Valera & Natasha Cherkashin (UA), Krzysztof Cichosz (PL), Nestorov Dimitar (BG), Füles (Jószef Tóth) (HU), Ion Grigorescu (RO), Jiri Hanke (CZ), Juraj Kammer (CZ), Gabor Kerekes (HU), Janis Knakis (LT), Sergey Kozhemyakin (BY), Marian Kucharski (PL), Peter Linnap (EE), Henryk Makarewicz & Wiktor Pental (PL), Barbara Metselaar Berthold (DE), Galina Moskaleva (BY), Andrej Pandele (RO), Uladzimir Parfianok (BY), Jano Pavlik (CZ), Yevgeniy Pavlov (UA), Stano Pekar (CZ), Miroslav Pokorny (CZ), Erasmus Schröter (DE), Gundula Schulze Eldowy (DE), Vladimir Shakhlevich (BY), Vytautas Stanionis (LT), Jane Stravs (YU), Antanas Sutkus (LT), Miro Svolik (CZ), Lenke Szilágyi (HU), Usha Tsonkova (BG), Nikola Vucemilovic (YU)

Photographers Beyond Walls: Alen Aligrudic (BA/SE), Andrej Balco, (SK), Ivan Blazhev (MK), Anja Bohnhof (DE), Irma Bulkens (NL), Dvorakova & Fischer (CZ), Bevis Fusha (AL), Balazs Gardi (HU), George Georgiou (GR), Claudio Hils (DE), Rip Hopkins (UK), Irwin (SI), Vaclav Jirasek (CZ), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas (LT), Wytske van Keulen (NL), Witold Krassowksi (PL), Masha Matijevic (NL), Lala Meredith-Vula (AL/BA/UK), Vittorio Mortarotti (IT/FR), Vesselina Nikolaeva (BG/NL), Lucia Nimcova (SK), Christoph Otto (DE), Sylvia Plachy (HU/US), Przemyslaw Pokrycki (PL), Dana Popa (RO), Katarina Radovic (RS), Peter Rakosi (HU), Agnieszka Rayss (PL), Frank Rothe (DE), Igor Savchenko (BY), Erasmus Schröter (DE), Flore-Aël Surun (FR), Andrew Testa (UK), Karel Tuma (CZ), Yordan Yordanov (BG)