In conjunction with an exhibition devoted to the artist Georges Rousse, the Centre d’Art Campredon in l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue features Sandra Calligaro’s series Afghan Dream in a space dedicated to young photographers. Aged 35, the photographer was selected and personally sponsored by Georges Rousse. The exhibition brings together 41 prints excerpted from the artist’s ongoing long-term project on Afghanistan.
“I came to Kabul almost by chance, initially for a month. All I knew about the country was commander Massoud, the Taliban, and opium… I had just obtained my degree in art and photography in Paris and was getting ready to make a radical change in my photographic practice: I wanted to realize my adolescent dream of being a ‘war correspondent.’ A friend journalist had once said to me, ‘Just go over there, Afghanistan is a good start.’ These words stuck with me for over eight years. In the end, my Afghan experience did not yield any ‘war photographs.’ Far from the front lines, I was fascinated by the fragility of daily life in this tormented country. Perhaps out of a sense of decency, as well as out of respect, I would often try to show the general sense of unease and the latent despair through the prism of ordinary situations, of in-between moments where tension becomes tangible, emotions barely visible, and the conflict out of reach—in a direct way, in any case.
Afghan Dream is a long-term project developed between 2011 and 2015: it shows the evolution of the Afghan society, shaken by over fifteen years of international presence in the country. Since 2001, the intervention of the coalition forces, the return of the diaspora, and a major humanitarian effort have fostered a renewal of the middle class and the emergence of a younger generation in the capital. The country is currently going through a critical period: the government in place has been increasingly undermined by the Taliban insurrection, while the NATO mission is reducing its presence and, as of late 2014, the international forces are being gradually withdrawn, which further endangers the delicate balance in this sector of the society.
In contrast to most images circulating in the press, these photographs portray the experience of daily life in the city, and present Afghans—or, to be more precise, Kabul residents—in situations that bring them closer to the viewer while offering an insight into a society that lacks a sense of direction and searches for an ideal that we can only sense with sadness.”
Sandra Calligaro
EXHIBTION
Afghan Dream
Sandra Calligaro
From Ocotber 24th, 2015 to February 21st, 2016
Centre d’Art Campredon
20, rue du Docteur Tallet
84800 L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
France
http://www.islesurlasorgue.fr
http://www.sandracalligaro.com
Prints made by Picto Lab
BOOK-SIGNING
On February 11th, 2016
Librairie Artazart
83 Quai de Valmy
75010 Paris
France
http://www.artazart.com
BOOK
Afghan Dream
Sandra Calligaro
Pendant ce temps Edition
Format : 28 x 22,5 cm
156 pages
Texts in french and in english
Release at the end of January 2016
http://www.pendantcetemps.fr/editions.html
