Andrej Bán          Pavol Breier          Alan Hyža          Martin Kollár          Martin Marenčin
Jozef Ondzik          Jaro Sýkora


Curator:

Lucia Benicka




Slovakia at the turn of the millenniums is a land where incredible stories of the past meet absurd situations of the present: modern city life amalgamates with rural poverty, as does the young's world with the disappearing generation and industrial zones with beauties of the nature. Each photograph has been taken through a filter of the author's rich inner universe. They can convey various facets of Slovakia as we perceive them unconsciously in everyday reality.

The work of Pavel Breier and Jaro Sýkora depict life in the North of Slovakia, particularly in the Orava region. The photographs carry on in the vein of Martinček, showing the harsh, predominantly agrarian life in the remote areas.
Pavol Breier's work focuses mainly on life of the people in the foothills, shepherds and everyday rituals in the Orava hillsides. Photographs about people who are gradually dying out and about the new generation who have trouble to link up with the old tradition. “ I am fascinated by the world that I discovered in the countryside, a world that I thought to have disappeared long ago. The world of the mountain people, living traditional lives, somehow detached from the outer civilisation. These people never do anything without a reason, everything is guided by a purpose. The same applies to their needs – useless things that keep overwhelming us mean a burden to them and therefore, they do not long for them, carrying on their simple lives in peace. When I went to the mountains in Asia, I realised that in spite of the geographical distance and different cultural background, people living in the mountains are rather similar. Unlike the Westerners, what is of utmost importance for them, is the inner peace. The same is written also in their faces: in spite of harsh lives, their faces are benevolent, balanced and optimistic. As a photographer, I am very much interested in how to express this philosophy of life.”

© Pavol Breier

JARO SÝKORA produces realistic portraits, depicting moments where time stands still. A generation of people who are leaving for good, of people attached to nature and to the silent, secluded life in the Orava hillsides. ”They are poor, yet they are free”. What he shows is not poverty, but a portrait of man in tough conditions, resembling to the end of the last century.
"Man is endowed with great strength that fascinates me. Fortunes of people from the Orava hillsides who caught my attention, were not simple ones. I understood that I would have to blend with their environment, stick to them as their own shade following them on the rubbed walls of the wooden cabins, imagine myself living their hard ordinary lives. I have been often reprimanded for photographing misery and poverty. I want my photographs to show the people the way I see them. I am one of them. I do not wish to laugh at them because they are unkempt and befouled. That is a part of their lives. Poor are those who can see only poverty in them. I have found the following inscription on a cross at the cemetery in Oravská Lesná:
What you are, we also used to be.
What we are, you also shall become.
We are as if we have never been.”

© Jaro Sýkora

Dark sides of contemporary Slovakia are unveiled also by ALANA HYŽA's reporter photographs. They are not mere representations of reality, there is much more to them. They tell their own story, often expressing sorrow, loneliness, isolation of the country as well as of its inhabitants. The photographer creates a powerful humanistic portrait of man running out of their possibilities provided by society. His work largely exceeds the limits of a reporter's record; what he produces is a powerful and convincing subjective document dominated by man.
c "I like to photograph people. I find them interesting, since man is the most intriguing creature on Earth. I do not intend to criticise, to ridicule or to stylise. I am mere observer and reporter. I document things, as some chronicler of the present. What I try to grasp is not dreams and visions but reality. I see hunger, desolation, misery, happiness, joy. As an impartial observer, I endeavour to stay on the outside. I am a psychologist and sociologist at the same time, but all of this just for myself, without letting the people around to see. I definitely do not feel like a picture hound. I show to people the world as seen though my eyes, speaking to them in a language that they comprehend, in a tongue that is understood anywhere - through photographs. "

© Alan Hyža

Andrej Bán's series of photographs about a 'different' Slovakia provides a document about the age during which we lived and which has left a deep imprint on the fate of the period we live in now. It becomes a testimony on ordinary people, a unique documentary record about the present-day country. Rural industry and culture, queer situations, commerciality and religious traditions join in a panorama of Bán's black-and-white present.
“My reporter's job made me realise that very often, the backstage is more interesting than the “main stage”. Involuntary gestures, equivocal situations perhaps difficult to make out, which release in certain precious moments, I am convinced, something spontaneous and unrepeatable. What I am interested in the most, is authentic life, rituals and customs of ordinary people who seem to be living against the current of time. I have become familiar with Slovakia and especially its remote places. I search for a Slovakia that has been disappearing, unable and maybe even unwilling to cope with the “new times”. However, this apparent rigidity of a transforming country is nothing more than a mask covering the hard dramas going on inside. This is also why I would come up only with one sentence: You may well not be able to find this country on any map.”

© Andrej Bán

Jozef Ondzik portrays contrasts of life both in the city and in the countryside. In his subjective recordings where time and place have little value, the figures and fragments of modern times alternate with symbols of the past. Loneliness and time that has come to a standstill emerge. As if we were not looking at documents but at photographs staged in carefully selected environments.
“I want to talk. Not to shout, to impress, to shock. This is why I opt for the most simple way of expression. Standard lens, treatment and view. The photographer should seemingly refrain as much as possible from intervening in the shot. To hide and stay invisible. His only task is to allow the situation transformed into the image to remain legible and intelligible. A story is always crucial for me: narration with a plot and the point. And if lines and areas in such photograph happen to fit together in remarkable composition, it is a small premium for the spectator, yet also the first shadow of doubt of authenticity. I am somehow unable to trust the perfect. In life, there is nothing perfect. Therefore, I attach great importance to minute details that disturb the narrative line, the noise and clatter. I do not need to journey to find inspiration for my stories. All the important things are going on around me. Just like in any other place of the world. To be more precise, everything essential is happening inside us. The truth, honesty, perseverance, wisdom, humility and wit. These are things that I like not only in photographs. And not to be such a bore, I feel that mystery and beautiful women should also be included.”

© Jozef Ondzik

Slovakia through Martin Kollár 's lens represents a dynamic and witty pictorial report. The author, who originally trained as cameraman, always initiates several plots in his photographs. His colour pictures on present-day Slovakia are simply ”in” and perfectly portray the ”hues” of today. Tireless wanderings across the countryside yield unique shots for the photographer, characterised by irony, humour, exaggeration and feeling for multiple composition layers.
“Irony is provocative, since it often uncovers the hidden meanings. I would like to be a storyteller, entering, as if unwillingly, the photographed views. I seize people's stories through the tiny eye of my lens, trying to record the moments lived by each of us in a small space and within several levels. I like merry and bizarre situations that form a part of everyday life. I travel across Slovakia as if crossing a miraculous and exotic land. I discover Slovakia for myself. I feel that after each journey, I come back slightly more mature, able to easier find my way around the everyday life.”

© Martin Kollár

Martin Marenčin documents a “slowly” Slovakia at anonymous events, where ”you do not stick out and are tolerated as part of the local colour.” He has a fascination for mass events - traditional folk events, rock concerts, disco parties. The contrastive colours turn a usual episode into a consumer and commercial billboard, standing in opposition to the imitation of old traditions captured by the photograph.
“Times have finally changed, people are, however, altered not fast but rather slowly, as an Englishman would say. Old ways of thinking are being slowly transformed into new ones. The antiquated is gradually dwindling while the new, the modern is slowly on the rise. I find the present times as absurd as the previous ones. I love black-and-white photography but I fell that the colour absurdity fits better to visually express the present times. Could it be that colours in my photos are somewhat odd? My project is an ironic one, perhaps even sarcastic. And I could not put up with real colours for this purpose. I wish to give my pictures a consumer and commercial appearance. When I used to cover traditional folk festivals, I had musicians in every picture. Now, they appear only in a single shot. It just happened this way. Everything was giving me a somehow “plastic” feeling. The absurd world of advertising within the context of ancient traditions. Stalls, umbrellas, plastic cups, billboards. Let us have no illusions about what we really are like.”

© Martin Marenčín

Slovakia as conveyed by the photographs is a land of inexhaustible inspiration and contrasts of culture and human destinies. They provide a truthful, although sometimes reckless, portrait of reality which is not easy to admit. ”Slovakia through the lens” of eight selected photographers is merely a short outing, consisting of diverse stories that make us ponder over the times we live in.

Lucia Benická, december 2002