On Photography
Essay by Petra Kapš Questioning photography, its analysis, deconstruction of its components and determinants, the exploration of the basics of the medium – T, f, ∞. What follows is the fundamental question – What is a photograph. But instead of focusing on the meaning, on what, we can turn our attention to topography and ask Where is a photograph. Given the implicit, at least metaphorical time dimension of the where question, we can add: When is a photograph. The first question remains significant at all times, whereas the second and the third open up broad horizons of possible considerations. In his photographic project Re-Format, Bojan Radovič combines these questions and adds a fourth one – How is a photograph. His basic point of departure is a specific space and time. The nucleus of an exhibition project consisting of the author’s personal story connected with a house is the wall as a vehicle of messages, and the many years the artist spent there, his decade-long absence and his recent return to this space. During his absence the house was uninhabited, the interrupted state of human intervention consequently facilitating the unhindered influence of natural phenomena: moisture, temperature variations and, most of all, light as one of the most attractive modifiers of the surface. The wall is a border between inside and outside, it delineates… and carries a record of habitation. At the same time, it is a direct physical topos and sign of the passage of time; it historicises habitation, in return facilitating an analysis of its traces. The artist reproduced the wall with a scanner and with the images created photographic “wallpaper” for the exhibition. There is striking similarity between the final product, created with a digital camera or a scanner, although differences are obvious to the expert eye. While questioning the use of technical tools, the artist critically focuses on the question of what a photograph is. This “photographic copying” of the wall by means of a scanner seems completely genuine to the naked eye. Indeed, the human eye, this unreliable, easily manipulated organ, is tricked if perception remains superficial. Today this is even more the case, because through this sense the most intense political/social/economic/geopolitical reality is constructed. The photo-graphic wallpaper takes on the role of the representation of reality, while at the same time questioning the medium of photography by generating multiple layers and translating the image to similar media. By means of the scan the artist records pure matter. Here we must not ignore his desire to record, to document the existing physical reality from up close, to come as near as possible to it. For those who created them, the traces on the wall are signs with references in their memory. An element of the documentary is present. The sharp haptic quality of the photographic wallpaper deludes the viewer even more. The fascinating, structured surface of the wall offers the aesthetic pleasure of seeing what can be seen in the context of many associations and references to the artistic and conceptual background. The visual effects of the images strongly resemble those of painting, while the “metaphor of the gaze” triggers many interpretations.T – time, f – aperture, ∞ – infinity: these three signs are placed in the centre of photographs or scans of the wall. The image, replica of the wall, placed on the wall along with a framed photograph of the wall, questions reality and the borders of a work of art and of the medium employed. The selected motif of the “empty” frame, of emptiness on the wall, which was created over a longer period of time and was revealed in a moment when an object, probably framed picture, was removed, is an extremely suggestive photograph (the artist’s game with transformations of formats does not allow the replication of the real state of things). Now it seems to have been a temporary decoration, because an empty apartment without people living in it does not need anything on the wall. This is evident from the framed emptiness, which had its value because otherwise the object would remain on the wall even when its inhabitants ceased to exist in its space; it can be defined as temporary decoration for the inhabitants, but not as a wall as such. The three codes are variables; they appear in all three segments of the artist’s display, including photographs of photograms, in interpretation, the infinite possibility and finality of the current exhibition and selection. Petra Kapš |
O fotografiji
Esej Petra Kapš Preizpraševanje fotografi je, analiza, razgradnja njenih sestavnih elementov, določevalcev, raziskovanje osnov medija – T, f, ∞. Sledi temeljno vprašanje, kaj je fotografi ja. Vendar namesto v pomen, v kaj, lahko zanimanje usmerimo v topografi jo in vprašamo, kje je fotografi ja. Ob tem, da krajevna vprašalnica implicitno, vsaj na metaforični ravni, vključuje časovno razsežnost, zapisu dodajmo še, kdaj je fotografi ja. Prvo vprašanje neprekinjeno ohranja svojo pomembnost, hkrati pa drugo in tretje razpirata široka polja mogočih razmišljanj. Bojan Radovič v fotografskem projektu Re-Format združi vprašalnice in doda četrto, kako je fotografi ja. Jedro razstavnega projekta, ki ga tvori avtorjeva osebna zgodba, vezana na hišo, na specifi čno v prostoru in času. Natančneje, gre za zid, steno kot nosilko zapisov in časovno dimenzijo avtorjevega večletnega bivanja,pozneje desetletne odsotnosti in sedaj nedavne vrnitve v omenjeni prostor. Hiša je bila v tem vmesnem času nenaseljena, prekinitev človekovih intervencij je posledično dopustila neovirano delovanje naravnih pojavov, tj. vlage, temeperaturnih sprememb, predvsem pa svetlobe, slednja je namreč ena izmed najaktivnejših modifi katorjev površine. Stena je meja, je raz(o)mejitev med notranjostjo in zunanjostjo, je zamejitev … nosi zapis bivanja. Sočasno obstaji kot neposredni fi zični topos in znamenje (pre)teka časa; zgodovíni bivanje, kar vzvratno omogoča analizo njegovih sledi. Avtor je za postopek reproduciranja stene uporabil optični bralnik, s pridobljenimi posnetki pa za namen postavitve ustvaril fototapeto. Podobnost med končnim produktom, ustvarjenim z digitalno kamero ali z bralnikom, je tesna, a hkrati je za poznavalce razlika očitna. Ob preizpraševanju uporabe tehničnih sredstev se avtor kritično usmerja do vprašanja, kaj sploh fotografi ja je. Ob tej »preslikavi« zidu z bralnikom prostemu očesu ni (raz)vidne – (raz)ločene – razlike. In dejansko, človekovo oko, ta varljivi, manipulaciji podvrženi organ, je ob nepozorni zaznavi prevarano. Danes še toliko bolj, saj se prav skozi to čutilo proizvaja najintenzivnejša konstrukcija politično-družbene-ekonomske-geopolitične realnosti. Fototapeta prevzame vlogo predstavljanja resničnosti, sočasno pa se s plastenjem in prehajanjem posnete podobe skozi sorodne medije v ospredje postavljajo vprašanja samega medija fotografi je. S pomočjo bralnika avtor zapisuje golo materialnost, prisotna je želja po beleženju, dokumentiranju obstoječe fi zične realnosti »od blizu«. Sledi na stenah so za tiste, ki so jih ustvarili, znaki z referenco v spominu. Izostrena haptičnost fototapete gledalca še toliko bolj zapelje v zmoto »realnega«. Stena z vso svojo zanimivo, strukturirano površino zadovoljuje estetski užitek ob gledanju tega, kar se daje videti, ob vrsti asociacij in referenc na likovno in konceptualno ozadje. Vizualni učinki podob so v bližini vtisa slike, »metaforika pogleda« pa razpira številne interpretacije. T – time (čas), f – zaslonka, ∞ – neskončnost – so trije znaki, vstavljeni v središče fotografi j, bralnikov zidov. Podoba, replika stene na steni z uokvirjeno fotografi jo preslikave stene, se ukvarja z vprašanjem realnosti in mejo umetniškega dela ter uporabljenega medija. Izbran motiv “praznega” okvirja, praznine na zidu, ki je nastajala dlje časa in se razkrila v trenutku, ko je bil odstranjen stenski objekt, verjetno slika, fotografi ja (avtorjeva igra s spreminjanjem formatov namreč ne dovoljuje predstave, povezane z realnim stanjem stvari), je izjemno sugestiven. Najverjetneje, kot se sedaj zdi, je šlo za začasen okras, saj prazno stanovanje, se pravi brez ljudi, ki bi v njem bivali, ne potrebuje ničesar na steni, kar izpričuje uokvirjena praznina. Ki je imela svojo vrednost, ker če je ne bi, potem bi objekt ostal na steni tudi takrat, ko so prebivalci prenehali bivati v prostoru; objekt je mogoče opredeliti kot začasen okras za prebivalce, ne pa za steno samo na sebi. Trije kodi so spremenljivke, pojavljajo se v vseh treh segmentih avtorjeve postavitve, tudi v fotografi jah fotogramov, z reinterpretacijo in neskončnostjo možnosti ter dokončnostjo trenutne postavitve in izbire. |