LES BALKANNES
Contempl'Art's first exhibition in Paris from September to October 2021.
1st Prize Winner
Babi, Iza Štrumbelj
Slovenia
"Fighting the stereotypic fear of the elderly stage connected with misery, somehow bordering depression and for most melancholy in the society preoccupied with celebrating youth, the author takes us through the vivid life of her 85-year old grandmother. She brings us into the story of her energetic, always tidy grandmother, who puts mascara on even if she knows she will not leave her home. Of an active, hard-working, sensitive woman who does not know what egoism is. Of a stubborn, impatient lady who rather arrives fifteen minutes too early than a second too late. Of the best cook who will not let her leave the apartment without having dried her hair. Of the most devoted and loving granny there is, having trouble coming to terms with her granddaughter growing up and not being needed to take care of her like she used to."
This photograph is part of a photo essay the author is working on since 2018.
@izastrumbelj
2nd Prize Winner
House not on sale, Saša Tatić
Bosnia & Herzegovina
"The era of the global economic crisis has forced the average citizen to resort to alternative solutions in overcoming the current financial challenges. One of the obvious indicators of radical alternatives is the trend of family house sales, which is currently flourishing in the Balkan countries. The decision to give up a residential building inevitably follows relocation or even emigration, which in greater or lesser numbers becomes part of everyday life.
The self-portrait of the artist with an improvised advertising sign is part of the multimedia work "HOUSE NOT ON SALE". By posing in her studio, the artist hints at her physical absence by obviously moving out of the context of the family house to which she refers in a statement on the advertisement. Ironically allowed by artists emigration status, this stand takes on the additional weight of a female descendant who does not renounce her heritage despite living in a completely different environment.
Unlike in the hands of the artist, the print of the advertisement in the hands of other family members testifies the resistance to the challenging living conditions in Bosnia - indicated by the condition of the house behind them. While on one side it celebrates the value of maintaining the family property, on the other side, The Sign criticizes the conditions that increasingly deny normal and points the only remained possibilities for it."
3rd Prize Winner
Ascension, Elena Sadîca
Romania
"Embarking on the quest to portray the woman in Balkan, we see the story of HER as the story of us all.
A story about the evolving nature of the Universe; like all things, humans go through phases and they are ever-transforming. What fitted us yesterday, might not serve us today. What we believe today, might not be true tomorrow. Evolving is adapting to new circumstances, creating new scenarios or simply going with the flow. In this ever-changing scene, what remains is the center of our existence, the little piece of universe we carry within.
The picture depicts a woman trapped in an old abandoned room, as a metaphor of old ways of thinking; the role she had in society until now, her place in the world, how she perceives herself.
She mourns the death of her old self as she sees her way out, a transcendence to a new self, simbolized by the light.
We are redefining the concepts of the world; not only about genders, but our whole perception of ourselves as human beings."
This is the ascension.
@selenar_vision
Contempl'Art selection
Reaching light through the Struggle, Ljubo Ašćerić, Serbia
"Inexhaustible inspiration is always portrait of a woman. Stories women tell and experiences they share are always worth listening to. The eyes of a woman are like the ocean, the color remains the same through life, but the story in them changes through years and make them more and more beautiful and satisfying. The eyes are the mirror of the soul and they can reveal suffer, sorrow, pain, also you can see the happiness in them. From the moment they open for the first time, to the moment they are closed, full of wrinkles that say its own story. Through the history, women are inspiration to lots of artist, they are pure, gentle. They are sacrificing mothers, beautiful princess and queens, brave warriors, and great artists, too. Artist should always learn and explore, seek for more, that is where inspiration comes from.
I often photograph my mother or my little sister, who appears here. I often like to say that all those who are lucky enough to have a sister or to feel maternal love are the happiest on Earth."
@_oziris
As it stands, Erdiola Mustafaj
Albania
"The photograph exposed was made near Elbasan, a small city in the middle of Albania, which the artist left since she was just 6, moving to Italy with her family. After many years she returned and started to investigate her origins, through family stories, memories and the metamorphosis of the space, influenced even now by the complexities of the past communist system. Her research starts from the symbol of the house, a place in which to feel ourselves intimately. It is on the doorstep that welcome and hospitality resonate, opening up the space of question or silence, of approaching or moving away from it. Through photography an attempt has been made to grasp the delicate balance of the continuous relationship between these moving boundaries, between inside and outside or public and private, trying to find the red thread also between two different cultures."
@erdiola.mustafaj
Portrait of a flower, Mihail Sotirov
Bulgaria
"The project for this portrait is based on the design ideas of the model, Veronika Traycheva, a 22-year-old student from the sea capital Varna, studying industrial design. Behind the camera is her close friend Mihail Sotirov, 23, a philosophy student in Sofia. The project was shot in the neglected and outdated districts of Sofia and the portrait aims to capture the cold and melancholic beauty of the panel Soviet landscape expressed through the inter-block spaces, as well as a more artistic and modern note in choosing styling and colors. The formal and elegant image of the model aims to contrast with the background, which in turn represents a static neighborhood with a typical Balkan look. The colors used are in favor of this contrast as the blue background color further enhances the cold post-sunset effect, bringing a sense of lifelessness, cold and even slight hopelessness, and the model, on the other hand, is highlighted in red, a color that carries a sense of vitality, youth, strength and potential. The portrait shows another side of our lands, where many modern Balkan women often grow up in places and come from areas far from the culture and beauty of modern times. Another important element in the portrait is the rose, which is not only a typical emblem of Bulgaria, but also skillfully contributes to a complete and delicate image, inspiring freshness and emphasizing the feminine radiance. The time chosen for the photos was just before dark to commemorate the sunset of the Soviet era, whose aesthetics were captured. The hairstyle is a mixture of slightly traditional tidy and braided hair, but at the same time slightly chaotic. Regarding the choice of make-up, the model has focused on a bolder choice of modern and even slightly abstract and fashionable effect, which is in step with modern times in contrast to the unchanging and aging architecture, which can be found in many places in this Balkan country."
NAŠA, Eva Popović
Croatia
"The name of this project is NAŠA, which in Croatian (and many other Slavic languages) is the female form of the word ‘ours’. Inspired by the theoretical framing of Afrofuturism and the mockumentary ‘Houston We Have a Problem’ (Žiga Virc, 2016), this work uses outer space as its landscape to explore the female Balkan experience. The artist has taken this self-portrait as a way to reflect on their own internal quarrels with the patriarchal aspects of Croatian peasant culture (Šokci). In Šokci culture, women are homemakers and men are providers. Opportunities offered to women within the culture are far more limited than those offered to men. NAŠA imagines a future in which Yugoslavia won the space race, beating the superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union to the Moon and beyond. The artist - dressed in a reimagined space suit inspired by folk wear from Croatia’s eastern region Slavonia and Baranja - takes the role of a head astronaut also responsible for cooking and cleaning. The artist acknowledges and treasures her peasant heritage (proudly wearing a traditional folk dress) while presenting herself as an empowered space explorer, leading South Slavic women into domestic servitude outside the home. The self-portrait is part of an absurdist photographic series that documents life as a homemaker, blurring the lines between fiction and reality."
@eva_popovic
Censored Body, Censored Mind, Besfort Syla, Kosovo
"We live in a time where appearance is everything, social media is the measure of success, values are reversed, while imposed standards of beauty are practically unattainable. As a result, people devote valuable time to superficial values, while the effect achieved is negative and damages interpersonal relationships, and in some cases even leads to a serious psychological state. Censored Body, Censored Mind researches the appearance, misuse and misinterpretation of the body on social media and in art, especially online art, while this interpretation is not always straightforward. This calls into question the relationship between the artist as an individual and the censorship of the patriarchal society, while discussing the phenomenon of new beauty standards, sexual status symbols and the consequences of self-objectification in the media of our century. "Censored Body, Censored Mind" is a form of protest against the collective way of thinking about the naked body. Art historian Kenneth Clark (1956) in his Nude Treatise summarizes the main principles of the integration of female forms in art, considering embarrassing images as the main issue. From this arose the idea of asking the question "Do we individually think it is shameful, or are we accustomed to thinking that way?”, when we see a naked body. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, but perhaps it is not the female body that needs censoring, but rather the mindset of those who view it as shameful."
@besfortsylaa
Dough rising, Alexandra Voutsina
Greece
"Shot on a film camera from the 1980’s given to the photographer from her grandmother, the selected photograph attempts to depict a confrontation towards objectification and stereotypical representation of a greek female body. Inspired by the multi-referenced piece by Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975), and adapting it on the urgencies of our time, we question in a playful way, the role of a female identifying person and what its expected from them in a local but also maybe universal, perspective. In Greece the concept of hosting is of historical relevance and throughout the centuries it has remained the responsibility of the women of the household; thus, creating a mass inequality between gender roles amongst society. In this piece, the host, the carer, the giver and the housekeeper revolts. We challenge performing hosting and redefine it. This photograph mirrors a collaboration between Alexandra Voutsina (Photography & Artistic Direction) and Marina Miliou Theocharaki (Concept & Performance). It acts as a documentation of a durational piece which departs from a simple bread-baking recipe. Legs wide open mirror the concept of manspreading, kneecap on the knee refers to an element of historical trauma and the black leather gloves represent builders or metal work, which is very much supposed to be “a man’s job” in Greece. The piece develops into an unruly, raw and messy cooking spectacle that involves narration, flamenco dancing, the strong wind, flour and throat singing. The performer reinterprets the utensils, materials and food while challenging their symbolism and bending “traditional” rules on how one should bake, take care of others, and host."
@alexandravoutsina
Tiredness, Zorana Mandić
Montenegro
"During the trip through Serbia, I had the opportunity to get better acquainted with the magnificent natural beauties of this country, but, since I have always been more interested in those not so touristically attractive and impressive places but more of some places like ruined buildings, abandoned landscapes and villages rejected by both people and time.
I have always been interested in that biological-instinctive aspect of consumerist society, where people firsty benefit from certain spiritual and material things and then abandon them as an old discarded things, as tools, houses, fields, families...
I did this project instinctively, with an absolutely open mind, with an documentaristic approach, literally with my eyes wide open and I just waited for things to simply happen.
This is a story about dying places, about passing, about rare people I met on this trip..."
@vodimejadranskomore
Bride from Labunishta, Filip Petkovski
North Macedonia
"The photograph features a young bride from the village of Labunishta in Struga, Macedonia on the day of her wedding. More specifically, the actress in the photograph depicts the moment when the veil of the bride is lifted in front of her future husband. Her facial expressions and the tears in her eyes indicate her emotional state, while her makeup features the intricate aesthetic choices that have been passed down as tradition from one generation onto another one. Her face is painted in a traditional technique called “Pishanje,” popular among Macedonian Muslims that live in the region. This initiation ritual through which the girl officially becomes a woman is performed by women only and it is still practiced today in closed circles. The communities associated with this ritual are called “Torbeshi” and live throughout Macedonia, but also in neighbouring Kosovo and Bulgaria. Even though ethnically Macedonian, they have adopted Islam during the Ottoman occupation of the region, so their traditions present a blend of Slavic and Turkic influences."
@petkovski_filip
No reservation, Marina Stančević
Serbia
"I was fascinated by this woman, I have photographed her several times, the pose and the environment are similar most of the time. She is busy and can't get to see the faces of her customers. They don't know her face either, that woman can be anyone. We pass by her, we forget her. We take her hard work for granted. The woman in the photo is a part of the statistics of this country. Divorced. Rejected. Poor. Tired. Raped. A woman who struggles with prejudices every day. Who does not ask, whose opinion does not matter. She doesn't make decisions. A woman who with her salary barely makes ends meet. A woman who does not travel. Her days are limited to a few squares. She takes up little space in the world. No hobbies. Interests. Afraid to make a wish. She forgets her dreams. She is 80% of those who cannot read. She was forcibly married today. Tomorrow they will throw at her face- Barren! Whore! She lives in a society where we mock the unknown. Where merging with mass is the only acceptable form of behaviour. Where there is nowhere to go. Where choices are reduced to ‘’either ... or’’. She will die of a curable disease, insufficiently informed. The woman in the photo deserves a name, but it doesn't matter to anyone, nor does her fate. Statistics have no face. This woman has it. It’s hard to see it from the smoke of the hot fried pieces of bread."
@subotnjajutra
Credits : Alexandra Voutsina