The 21st edition of the Rencontres de la jeune photographie internationale de Niort is exhibiting the work of 14 international artists, with French photographer Klavdij Sluban as the guest of honor, and the exhibition Transsibériades on display through May 30th, 2015.
Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell and opened the door to Eastern Europe. But saying that it “fell” is misleading: this wasn’t a structural collapse, but the demolition of a something obsolete.
I used to be a mason, and for many years I built walls. It was only when they were no longer good for anything that we were able to see its good side. How wonderful it is to see the demolition of a dividing wall, to evacuate the guardhouse at an obsolete border. I like the end of borders in new Europe. I like the word “union.” The walls have two faces and two objectives: one side keeps others out, the other side keep people in. The 20th century saw more people imprisoned than in all of human history. My generation, the last gasp of the Western revolutionary left, was the most imprisoned for political reasons in the history of Italy, beating the record of those imprisoned under fascism by far. The walls of the 20th century were used to keep us inside.
The photographer Klavdij Sluban comes from separated Europe. He’s used to cells and bars, so he wanted to teach photography in prison. With this book, he visited the East, a former monastery. Twenty years ago in Berlin, a dam was demolished. A crowd poured through the first breach one autumn night. A few meters were enough to unite the two sides. On that night, Germany left behind the final consequence of a war that began 44 years earlier.
EXHIBITION
Transsibériades
Klavdij Sluban
As part of Rencontres de la jeune photographie internationale de Niort
Through May 30th, 2015
CACP-Villa Pérochon
64 rue Paul-François Proust
79000 Niort
France
http://www.cacp-villaperochon.com
http://www.sluban.com
