Roger Ballen, A Black-and-White Voyage to South Africa
The Recoleta Cultural Center in Buenos Aires invites viewers to immerse themselves in the work of South Africa-based American photographer, Roger Ballen. The exhibition explores different themes, from the small mining towns of South Africa, which Ballen first discovered upon arriving in the country as a geologist, to his more recent work reminiscent of painting, particularly the series Asylum of the Birds.
Born in 1950 in New York, Ballen graduated with a degree in geology at the age of 18 and settled in South Africa. His work has brought him to some of the most hostile corners of the country. He began photographing the life of white citizens, Afrikaners, in isolated villages. Starting in 1994, Ballen began working in Johannesburg and explored the marginalized white populations through series like Dorps, Platteland and Outland, which were exhibited around the world.
The exhibition also features Ballen’s more recent and more artistic works,Boarding House and Asylum of the Birds. “If an artist is one who spends his life trying to define his being, I guess I would have to call myself an artist,” says Ballen. Here the border between dreams and reality is thinner than ever. Ballen incorporates drawing, painting and collage in his staged photographed. His latest series, in which Ballen expresses his fascination for birds, has been turned into a book and is accompanied by a video, Asylum of the birds.
Viktoria Sorochinski, Scenes of Exile
As part of its rich program, the Recoleta Cultural Centers is exhibiting Anna & Eve by Viktoria Sorochinski. Born in the USSR and exiled at age 11, Sorochinski here shows the worries of a generation in crisis and transformation. The work explores themes of exile, nostalgia and the search for identity in this series which depicts a Russian mother and her daughter in Montreal between 2005 and 2012.
EXHIBITION
Roger Ballen runs through September 28th, 2014
Viktoria Sorochinski, Anna & Eve, runs through September 21st, 2014
Centro Cultural Recoleta
Junin 1930
Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://www.centroculturalrecoleta.org
www.rogerballen.com
http://www.viktoria-sorochinski.com
