Eliska Bartek
dal 29/7/2009 al 5/9/2009
Segnalato da
29/7/2009
Eliska Bartek
Rosphoto State Russian Center for Photography, St. Petersburg
The artist has come to be increasingly interested in the subconscious and the mystic, the sense that there is another reality behind pictures, that remains unshown. It is this unshown reality that Bartek focuses on in her recent work, as in this 2008 series of black and white photographs. In her photograms, she opens a both critical and sensuous dialogue with the erotic objects and toys that she arranges surrealistically.
Erratic Photography
The artist has come to be increasingly interested in the subconscious and the
mystic, the sense that there is another reality behind pictures, that remains
unshown. It is this unshown reality that Eliška Bartek focuses on in her recent
work, as in this 2008 series of black and white photographs. Created on a
journey to Abu Dhabi, the series reveals both a hightened sensitivity for the
void and a profound curiosity for orientation in an unknown culture. By working
with time exposure and camera in motion, the artist succeeds to capture the
fluid image of a megacity at the moments of departure and arrival on its airport.
She presents us with a sense of tension which builds up in transitional moments
of arrival and departure, and which seems to correlate with the discrepancy
between image and non-image, longing and disappointment, familiarity and
estrangement, expectation and passiveness.
In Bartek's works, the high-tech architecture of the airport and the zeitgeist of
flying for a higher game it represents, are revealed as ambitious facades which
barely seem to conceal an abysmal potential of paradox and irrationalism.
Bartek's erratic photography confronts us with unreal apparitions that seem to
stand for the deeply human and universal quest for purpose and identity.
Bartek's pictures also convey the sense that this quest is bound to fail, once
we lose contact with our historical roots or refuse to actively participate in our
future. Ambition for its own sake, Bartek's photographs seem to hint, is as fragile as a house built on sand it can be blown away by history any time.
Gunther Dietrich
The artist's works relate to traditions in photography from her own country and
abroad. She works in the spirit of Constructivist and Geometric Photography
as well as Dada and Surrealism. Her pieces resemble Talbot's Photogenic
Drawings - images of objects that were exposed to light on photosensitive
paper, a technique frequently adopted by avant-garde artists in the inter-war
period, such as Laszlo Mohly-Nagy and Christian Schad or Czechia's Jaromir
Funke, František Drtikol, Jaroslav Rössler and Eugen Wikovský. These artists
experimented with the effects of light, by placing objects and forms of different
transparency on a photosensitive surface, which then was exposed to stable
or movable light sources. Bartek's photographs also bring to mind experiments
by late Polish artists: Antoni Mikolajczyk's Partytury Miast [Scores of Cities]
from the 1980s, which show recordings of light waves and spatial situations;
and also Henryk Stazewski's 9 strumieni kolorowego światła na niebie
[9 streams of color light on the sky] (1970, Wrozlaw).
Both series share a fascination with the role of light in photography, appearing
as a Demiurge giving form to the overwhelming world and its elements, thus
creating artistic reality. They capture its characteristics - constant change,
instability and momentariness. This light is not stopped by the surface of reality
but reaches deeper, into materiality itself. Similarly our reception of Eliška
Bartek's art does not end with simply enjoying the visual aspect.
Magda Durda-Dmitruk
Director of 5th Warsaw Festival of Art Photography 2009, Poland
Mirrors of desire and subjection
In her photograms, Eliška Bartek opens a both critical and sensuous artistic
dialogue with the erotic objects and toys that she arranges surrealistically.
Her approach can be compared to a banning ritual: by visually exhausting
moral and ethical thresholds, she provokes escalation between violence and
lust, intimidation and desire, sexual subjection and emancipation. The aesthetics of her symbolism are narrative as well as vivid in their presentation of
objects. Most aesthetically arranged in fragile conjunctions, Asian love balls
or dildos appear like relics of sexual pleasure on a demonic family altar. They
symbolize the magnetic attraction of the sexes, yet they are also fetishized
substitutes for the sexual other. Presented in cross-faded negatives, these
images gain the quality of indiscreet x-rays. They seem like subversive inner
display windows of provocation or peep boxes of erotic fantasies and obsession. In an almost ritual synthesis of everyday-life and cultism, these objects
imitate a ceremonial sacrifice, which is performed on a surreal family altar of
desire.
Christina Wendenburg
The beautiful Mysteriousness of Eliška Barteks Blossoms
In what resembles a diabolic provocation, Eliška Bartek's fascinating photographs of orchids, hibiscus and magnolia blossoms seem illuminated by Bengal
lights. They appear to be twisted together from angels' wings. Most important
for the artist in her work with fresh flowers is the use of artificial light which
provides a larger spectrum than sunlight and makes the specific objects glow
three dimensionally on a stage setting. The artist relies completely on the analogue character of conventional photography and rejects the aid of computers.
Most of the flowers originated from a botanical garden in a small village in the
district of Ticino, which lies in the Italian part of Switzerland. Eliška made her
selection following strict artistic criteria: only the most sculptural looking specimens were cut for her by the owner himself. The fascinatingly lit images invite
us to close-up investigation but also suggest distant panorama perspective,
thus providing romanticism as well as its critique. The powerful interaction
between the botanical and the artificial invokes exoticism and eroticism, beauty
and danger. Nature is always one step ahead of culture - but these flowers
are more: they are horribly beautiful, dangerous, melancholic and romantic.
These works tell the tale of Eliška Bartek's little garden of paradise, an eternally
flowering place of delight.
by Christoph Tannert
The catalogue was kindly supported by Dr. Gerhard Pfister, Schwitzerland for the reproduced works by
and by Dr. Stadthaus from the German Embassy's Cultural Department in St. Petersburg.
Special thanks to Dieter Fehlbaum, Johannes Kretzschmar, Christoph Tannert, Michael Schultz, Petra Schilcher, Roxana Pirovano, Gunther Dietrich, Magda Durda and to the friends and people who support me along my artistic way.
Many thanks to Mr. Zakhar Kolovsky, General - Director of State Russian Centre
of Photography ROSPHOTO, St.Petersburg, Russia.
Until 31.08.2009
Old St.-Petersburg
In the framework of ROSPHOTO exhibitions in the House of Cinema.
The State Russian Centre of Photography (ROSPHOTO) presents a version of «Old St.-Petersburg» with over twenty early XIX century photographs by well known European masters. Among the images are those created in "Boissonas&Eggler " studio (founded in 1902 by the Swiss Frederic Boissonas and German master Fritz Eggler) as well as those of Emile Huard.
Opening: 30 July - 6pm
Rosphoto State Russian Center for Photography
Ul. Bolshaya Morskaya, 35 St. Petersburg
daily 11-19