It was a great experience.
I want to thank the curators Adam Mazur, Vilma Samulionytė and Natalia Żak and the organisers for the high-quality presentation of Lithuanian photography.
More information here: https://mck.krakow.pl/exhibition-lithuania-two-centuries-of-photography
To buy the catalogue of the exhibition: https://ksiegarniamck.pl/en/produkt/lithuania-two-centuries-of-photography/
Videos in Polish and Lithuanian:
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Sorry for not posting for a solid period of time.
russian war against Ukraine affecting all Ukrainians around the World asnd I am not an exclusion. That is why I post with such time gaps.
During that time I managed to hold an exhibition of the PW44 series, in frames of the Thomas Mann Festival in Nida, Lithuania.
Adding several photos from the installation of the artworks.
Also, one of my new series, which is not presented at my website, was published in the almanack Lithuanian Photography'22
The series conducted from four photographs of the prison cell metal bunks from the former prison, and also, a monitor with burnt pixels which is (being turned off) preserved images recorded by 4 CCTV cameras of the prison territory.
The other great thing is that both of my books (Surveillance. A Typology of Oppression and PW44) were reviewed in the context of current political situationin the World. The text is published in the Politologia magazine. Publisher: Vilnius University Press.
Have some more news that will post soon.
Thank you for your support! Stay tuned!
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I received a 300 squared meters space which I filled with 8 series of mine. Some of them you may see in the pictures presented below.
Additional information on the Festival (in Lithuanian) can be found here: https://siauliugalerija.lt/mediju-meno-festivalis-enter20/
It's been a while since I did not post my news here. A lot of things happened during these months. Here, I would like to share information about my art.
Not so long time ago a new issue of the Dailė/Art Magazine was published. In this issue, one may find an article by Lithuanian art historian Agnė Narušytė about my latest activity.
The magazine is in Lithuanian, but if you would like to read it, you could try an online translator. It is not a perfect solution, but better than nothing.
Link to the online version of the article: https://www.artseria.lt/post/irodymai
During that period of time, I moved from Vilnius to Warsaw to meet and help Ukrainian war refugees.
Thanks to all my friends from the USA, New Zealand, Belgium, Poland, Germany and Lithuania/Iceland for their help!
Video on YouTube platform:
Link to the KPRC2 channel with video and text:
Due to the escalation of the war in Ukraine by russia (which started in 2014 and now went into a full-scale invasion),
I started to volunteer to help Ukrainian war refugees in Poland and Lithuania and did not have time for my art.
Unfortunately, the war is not ended yet and russia is still trying to invade my homeland.
But I decided to find time and share with you some information on my projects created on the topic of propaganda and oppression.
At first, the idea was to show a spyhole from the project Surveillance, photographed smeared over prison cell window from the former Gestapo and later KGB prison, and a book of the PW44 project. To the idea of Kate Genever, images should be provided with a flag made by the artist (note: one of the artists that presented his work in this gallery was Ai Wei Wei), we decided to create a flag that would recall a spyhole. Later, as the war in Ukraine started, we added the Ukrainian flag.
Check this and other projects at: https://www.kategenever.com/work/the-notice-board/
Instagram pages: @noticeboardunited and @kategenever
Thank you very much!
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Today I would like to ask you to support Ukrainian Army which defends Ukraine from russian invasion.
It is not fake. My mother stuck in one of the cities of Ukraine and hiding from bombings by russian aviation.
I would not joke or manipulate with such things, believe me.
Please, support Ukrainian Army which defends civilians from the massacre started by Putin.
Link: https://www.comebackalive.in.ua
Thank you!
]]>I disappeared for some time as many great things happened, as online as offline, and did not have much time to share the news with you.
During the last two months:
- Performed for students of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague during the Network Week.
The most interesting is that all years performers were from The Netherlands and or who studied arts in The Netherlands at some point in their lives.
This year was an exclusion. I was the only artist who did not study at the actual Academy or their Art School but was invited to participate in the Network Week.
https://photographynetworkweek.kabk.nl/visits/
- Managed several talks and gave a few interviews about my exhibition "Consecutive Fixation" in Klaipeda, Lithuania
Lithuanian news delfi.lt about the exhibition and short video interview at youtube.com
- Developed two photography courses for the European Humanities University, which I will start to teach from March 2022
- Sold some of my artworks in Lithuania and abroad
And went through the surgery at the end of January, which affected my timing, and because of that, I did not share the news much.
New photography series will be added to the website soon! Stay tuned!
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Dear friends! DECEMBER 17TH, AT 18:00, at the Klaipeda Exhibition Hall, will open my exhibition, Consecutive Fixation.
At the exhibition, I will show several of my projects, such as Horizons, The Process, Traces of Memory, Surveillance, Architecture of Evidence, and several other series that were not exhibited previously. Also, it will include both books published during the last two years.
I am still preparing for the exhibition, printing catalogues, and working on different ways of presentation.
The exhibition will last until January 16th
Here, I would like to share the front page of the folding catalogue for the exhibition, which includes images from different series and the text written by Katažyna Jankovska. I hope you will enjoy it!
Adding the full text by Katažyna Jankovska below:
Inextricably linked to an unseen history, the photographs of Valentyn Odnoviun act as a dispersed collection of traces of political violence, retained by places that once enabled them to occur. Objects sustaining their versions of history manifest themselves as a dynamic entity that communicates the grim fate of the oppressed, sometimes more telling than straightforward - yet edited - human narratives. Erased paint on the metal bunks unveiled imprints of detainee bodies and marks on the cracked prison cell walls. Stairs leading to the headquarters’ basements bear witness to the heavy steps of the wardens. Painted over windows, withholding gazes from both outside and inside. All of them are visual clues that operate as references to events planned to be unseen and forgotten. Like light-sensitive photographic paper, buildings and objects’ surfaces function here as sensors accumulate the material inscriptions of political violence that sustain them as claims.
Reading history via these traces carries a certain forensic interest. The revelatory power of details inherent to the practice of investigation and the need to see what is external to the image puts the viewer in the position of the forensic anthropologist. Ever since the 19th century, the accuracy of the mechanical eye paved the way for photography into the field of empirical science; the medium started to be used as a significant means of evidence, moving beyond partial standpoints towards unquestionable evidence of truth. However, as the captured aftermath of violence remains a provisional stop between what happened and what was yet to happen, the viewer is proposed to invoke the imagination in order to reconstruct the chain of events. Filling the gaps left with a subjective interpretation, the imaginative associative game turns into a process of mental reconstruction of events, resulting in the whole spectrum of possible meanings and new perceptions.
An emerging thread of speculations reflects the linkage between the images of violence and the violence of images. Questioning the ambiguous relationship between photographic realism and politics of representation per se, Odnoviun’s photographs present visual evidence as a reflection of the repressive logic inherent in the technological possibilities of the camera. Seen as a visual representation of the truth, photography becomes the weapon against it in the long turn, obfuscating rather than showing the way things actually are. The promise of photographic truth fades to gradually become an integral tool of control and repressive power hiding under the veil of objectivity.
Violence can have different configurations. It can be coloured by fear and conflict, as one would regularly expect in the context of historically violent settings. Yet this scattered archive of visual clues of covered, hidden or simply overlooked traces of political violence appears unexpectedly beautiful, creating a deceitful atmosphere of misleading assumptions. Captured cracks, holes and lines appear as almost abstract painterly compositions, explaining the peculiar attractiveness of these photographs. The friction between documentary content and abstract form breaks the sign’s connection to the actual referent, turning documentary evidence of violence into an object of aesthetic contemplation.
Odnoviun’s photographs’ ambivalence and the perceptual doubt experience remind us that the complicity with violence comes from passive reception. Photography, as usually reduced to the act of recognition with no room for a broader narrative, here disrupts the automatic interpretation. Fostering the effect of estrangement, as introduced by Shklovsky and expanding borders of our imagination, photographs enable us to engage critically with entrenched practices of violence.
Usually, the trace means that the event is over and can be gazed upon at a remove, in a state of temporary, physical and emotional distance. Yet, these abstract testimonies transcend their indexical relationship with specific events, reminding us about the universal and omnipresent form of structural violence that is not limited to definite geography and time. Images refer to something already belonging to the past but somehow persistent in the present, thus being emblematic of a larger discourse of oppression. The process of defamiliarisation involves a longer perception process, upsetting the balance between aesthetic and moral response, stimulating our critical engagement with the current underlying systems of brutal forces. Pointing to the universality of violence, these photographs exist in an ephemeral place, speaking for all the past, present and future regimes where life and order seem to be at odds.
]]>The conference took place on October 28th at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute platform.
In the conference took part:
- Rita Repšienė, with her presentation: Vizualinės medijos skaitmeninėje epochoje: strateginė komunikacija, imersinis dizainas ir poveikio galia
- Odeta Žukauskienė, Homocentrizmo krizė vizualumo ir medijų studijų akiračiuose
- Vytautas Rubavičius. Sąmonės suvaizdinimas dirbtinio intelekto aplinkoje
- Žilvinė Gaižutytė-Filipavičienė. Antropoceno estetika vizualinių medijų lauke
- Agnė Narušytė. (K)laiko nėra: menininkų Remigijaus Treigio ir Beno Šarkos dialogas „Facebooko“ erdvėje
- Renata Šukaitytė. Vizualiniai karo Ukrainoje liudijimai Šarūno Barto filme „Šerkšnas“ (2017)
- Valentyn Odnoviun, Between Real and Imaginary: Shift in Perception and Use of the Photographic Image and Its Evidentiary Power / Tarp tikro ir įsivaizduojamo: percepcijos ir fotografijos vaizdo bei įrodomosios galios naudojimo poslinkis
- Naglis Kardelis, Filosofiniai komunikacijos ir vizualumo aspektai
I want to share with you a great achievement! This month, on October 21st, I presented Surveillance. A Typology of Oppression and PW44 books at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Even though the Surveillance book was published in April of 2020 by the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute and Artprint.lt, I did not have the opportunity to present it officially because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
PW44 was published in October of 2021 by NoRoutine Books.
Art historian and critic Agnė Narušytė (Vilnius Academy of Arts), art historian and critic Natalija Arlauskaitė (Vilnius University), director of the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute Rasius Makselis, and publisher of the PW44 book Gytis Skudžinskas (NoRoutine Books) took part in the discussion, which happened after the presentation of the books.
Ieva Mazūraitė-Novickienė moderated the event.
I am thrilled that I succeeded to present both books at the same time this year. For me, it means a lot.
Waiting for a video report from the event to share with you!
For now, sharing some images made during the event.
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I was very pleased to present my research "Correlation Between the Image and Its Reason" at the International Symposium on Photography "A System Among Others? Power, Balance, Self-reflection On and With the Photographic Image" organized by Landskrona Foto, Hasselblad Foundation and Lund University.
It is a great experience for me. I am very glad to meet new people, make new connections, learn new information on photography and improve my skills as a speaker.
Two day sessions were recorded on video and downloaded to the facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/
Later, it is planned to download these sessions to YouTube platform here: https://www.youtube.com/
I have been honoured to curate the exhibition of art photography by Evgeniy Pavlov. In frames of the INTERPHOTO Festival, 2021 was shown his series "Total Photography."
If you would like to see artworks of this amazing artist, please follow this link: https://evgeniypavlov.com/#/
The most exciting and interesting exhibitions (in my personal subjective opinion) were:
- Exhibition "Theme 011" by Gvido Kajons (curator: Maira Dudareva)
- Exhibition "ID-Tentity" by students of the Film School Lodz (teacher: Hubert Humka)
- Exhibition "Poetry of Everyday. Czech Post-War Avant-Garde Photography" (curator: Štěpánka Bieleszová)
From the finalists of the Grand Prix, I would like to highlight works by Zuzana Pustaiova, Agata Skupniewicz and John Anderson (you can easily Google them and/or find at instagram).
Grand Prix received project by Ukrainian photographer Igor Chekachkov.
To get more information about the events that took place in frames of the festival follow this link: https://www.interphoto.pl/home-en/
Also, you may follow the Festival in Facebook and Instagram.
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Thank you for mentioning my artwork and my name next to famous Lithuanian artists!
This year I will participate in the International Symposium on Photography and Ethics at the nexus of the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Practice, hosted by the Department of Sociology, Lund University, in collaboration with the Hasselblad Foundation and Landskrona Foto.
I will present my writing titled "Correlation Between The Image and Its Reason" (and will talk about my projects "Surveillance," "PW44" and others) Thursday, 30 September around 11.00 during paper session 1.
Symposium will be held in the Landskrona Theater, Sweden. 30 September & 1 October 2021
I will leave information about the symposium here:
SYMPOSIUM TOPIC
Photographic images, especially in series, essays, or other visual narratives, and social sciences research afford us insights into systems at the societal, institutional, group, or individual levels that otherwise would be disregarded as physical and social realities. However, to portray and convey the realities of such systems, recognizable individuals sharing their life, insights and emotional conditions are often depicted (photographed or studied) by other individuals than those documented.
Documenting the realities of different systems raises questions about the purpose and power of the photographic image. As has been evident since the late 19th century, documentary photography can reveal unpleasant truths by capturing a variety of events that many would prefer to ignore and, in that sense, potentially become a tool for political change. But the genre and its practitioners have been rightly criticised – consistently since the 1980s – from feminist and post-colonial positions for risking silencing, victimising, or exploiting their subjects.
Gaining knowledge about different systems, contexts, and cultures aims for social science research and social documentary photography. Although the techniques, practices and outcomes are different, both struggle with similar basic issues, issues that are also ethical: Can we claim that what we study/describe offers a “truthful” depiction? What and who is included and what is excluded in the “framing”? What is our own role in the image we convey of what we study or document? To what extend can we give a credible picture of something we are not a part of (or at best, only temporarily a part of)? And to what extent are we creating our own interpretive precedence and our own “reality”? How do we as researchers and photographers avoid exercising symbolic violence over those we study and document via photography? How can we collaborate with and learn from the “reality” of the social groups we study or document?
This symposium challenges us as photographers, researchers and viewers to be self-reflexive and engage in dialogue about ethical responsiveness and inclusive strategies in image and knowledge production.
UPDATED PROGRAM
Thursday, 30 September
8.45–9.15 Coffee and registration
9.15-9.30 Welcome by Jenny Nordquist (Landskrona Foto), Britt-Marie Johansson & Christopher Mathieu (Department of Sociology, Lund University) and Louise Wolthers (Hasselblad Foundation)
9.30-10.30 Keynote Speaker: ”Confessions of a bordering actor, vol. 2: On the politics and ethics of vision, visualization and scholarship in Gaza and Northern Finland.” Laura Junka-Aikio (Photographer and researcher in political and cultural studies, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at Tromsø University Museum, Arctic University of Norway (UiT)
10.30-12.00 Paper session 1 (4 papers á 20 minutes)
Negotiating research: Studying Sámi Photographs as Norwegian Outsiders. Sigrid Lien ( Professor of Art History, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen, Norway) and Hilde Wallem Nielssen (Social anthropologist and Professor of Intercultural Studies, NLA University College Bergen, Norway.
Re-framing Photographic Archives: Archaeological photography and the construction of knowledge. Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert (Associate Professor at the School of Fine and Applied Arts at the Cyprus University of Technology/ Museum Lab Leader, CYENS Center of Excellence)
Online presentation: The Participatory Photo Workshop as Image Production and Storytelling in Contemporary Greenland. Mette Sandbye (Professor at Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen) & Tina Enghoff (Visual Artist)
Online presentation: Approaches to Indian Photography Through the Lens of Sham Sunder Das: A comparative study on Western and Indian photographic aesthetics. Ankana Sen (PhD, Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India) Dr Deepak J Mathew, (Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India)
12.00-13.00 LUNCH BREAK
13.00- 14.15 Panel discussion “Photographing the person in context – the ethics and process of creating subject and object” moderated by journalist Kalle Kniivilä
Kent Klich In connection with the symposium, Landskrona Foto will host photographer Kent Klich`s exhibition A Tree Called Home a social documentary photographic study of a PNI (Psycho-neurological asylum) in Russia that Kent Klich followed and documented for 17 years. This exhibit raises among others the issues of power relations between individuals, roles and systems. It challenges us about how we equip ourselves to and carry out ethical decision-making processes regarding the vulnerable and disenfranchised who cannot express their will in such process, as well as the social and ethical imperative to investigate, document, and convey the existence of oppression in society, be it our own or others, and the singular force and complementarity of the photographic image and the written word.
Leonid Tsoy (Psychologist, sociologist and artist living in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His theoretical interests are human rights, places of detention, violence, as well as contemporary art in its ethical aspects. He is the author of psychoneurological asylums in Russia: the relationship between normativity and violence. A master thesis in sociology 2019, French University College St. Petersburg State University. This thesis is included in the book A Tree Called Home by Kent Klich together with the artwork of Aleksey Sakhnov.)
Natalya Petukhova (Art historian, curator and an inclusion specialist working in the State Russian Museum and coordinator of the project Shirota & Dolgota. This project provides support to the artist who lives in closed psychiatric institutions to establish contact with the outside world and to represent their art in cultural institutions.)
Alain Topor Psychologist and professor in the Department of Psychosocial Health at the University of Agder (Norway) and an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University (Sweden). He participated in the closure of mental hospitals in Sweden and has conducted research about different social aspects in the recovery process from severe mental health problems.
Sigrid Lien (Professor of Art History, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen, Norway)
14.15-14.30 Coffee, tea, water and fruit break
14.30 – 15.30. Online presentation Keynote speaker: Registers for the Future: Muriel Hasbun’s Pulse/Pulso. Erina Duganne (Associate Professor of Art History in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University)
15.30- 16.15 Paper session 2 (2 papers á 20 minutes)
Always Guilty, Mostly Angry: A Self-reflective Account of the Invisible Violence of Compulsory Hijab in Hengameh Golestan’s Photo Collection. Samaneh Mohseni Hosseinabadi (Master student, Visual culture, Lund University, Sweden)
Visualising Balance, Balancing Visualities: Race, epistemology and equality in visual culture. Sarah Samira El-Taki (PhD fellow, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen
16.15-16.30 Coffee, tea, water and fruit break
16.30 17.15 Continuation of Paper session 2 (2 papers á 20 minutes)
Online presentation: Repositioning the migrant in the cultural background: Migrant memories and photography. Anna Lisa Tota (Full Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts, University of Rome III ) & Lia Luchetti (Adjunct Professor in Sociology of Communication and Media, University of Rome III)
Online presentation: Photography and culture jamming: Practices of subvertisements in the public discourse. Lia Luchetti (Adjunct Professor in Sociology of Communication and Media, University of Rome III)
17.15-17.30 Concluding remarks
17.30 -19.00 Private view at Landskrona Foto (Kavallerigatan 4) of the exhibition – A Tree Called Home, a social documentary photographic study of a Psycho-neurological asylum in Ensk, Russia. by Kent Klich.
Friday, 1 October
8.30-9.00 Coffee and registration
9.00-9.30 Summary of the first day’s discussions.
9.30-10.30 Keynote speaker: Madina Tlostanova (Professor of postcolonial feminisms, Department of Thematic Studies, Linköping University, Sweden)
10.30-10.45 Coffee, tea, water and fruit break
10.45-11.45 Paper session 3 (3 papers á 20 minutes)
Online presentation: The Ethics of Speaking and Not-Speaking – Judith Stewart (Visual artist and Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University and an external postgraduate research supervisor at Norwich University of the Arts.) & James Quinn (Artist and PhD Graduate Norwich University of the Arts and University of the Arts London, UK)
A Place Like All Others: Using Ethnography to Address Representation. David Flood(Image-maker, researcher, educator and PhD candidate at University of Helsinki, Finland)
How we can communicate about serious incidents and human distress through photography. Hilde Honerud and Jon Hovland Honerud (Associate professor in Photography & Associate professor, USN School of Business, Department of Business, Strategy and Political Sciences, University of South-Eastern Norway)
11.45-12.45 Paper session 4 (3 papers á 20 minutes)
To What Extent do E.J. Bellocq’s “Storyville” Photographs Appear to Advertise the Women they Portray? Christina Marriage (MA post-graduate, History of Art, The University of East Anglia, UK)
Becoming Conspicuous through the Ethnographers Eye: Photography, Ethnography and Irish Traveller Ethnicity. Justin Carville (Historical and Theoretical Studies in Photography, The Institute of Art, Design, Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland)
Writing about emotions: a study of how theory of affect can be applied at the intersection of place and work. Susanne Fessé (Art Historian, curator & writer. Editor in Chief Utställningskritik. Co-founder and former publisher (2016-2018) of VERK journal, Sweden)
12.45- 13.45 LUNCH BREAK
13.45-14.45 Online presentation: Keynote Speaker: Fred Ritchin, (Dean emeritus of the International Center of Photography and former professor of Photography & Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts)
14.45- 15.30 Paper session 5 (2 papers á 20 minutes)
Exhibition as Exploration: Dear Truth in Times of Post-Truth. Kerstin Hamilton (PhD candidate, HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
Correlation Between The Image and Its Reason. Valentyn Odnoviun (Photographer and PhD student at Lithuanian Culture Research Institute)
15.30-15.45 Coffee, tea, water and fruit break
15.45-16.30 Continuation of Paper session 5 (2 papers á 20 minutes)
Feeling the past: an emotional reflection on an archive. Erika Larsson (PhD, Post doc, HDK-Valand Academy, Gothenburg University & Hasselblad Foundation, Sweden)
Online presentation: Unburied Truths: On Photography and the Factographic Contract. Dave Beech (Artist & writer, researcher at University of the Arts London, UK)
16.30-17.00 Concluding Remarks Inspired by Alfredo Jaar’s Politics of Images.
The concluding remarks discuss the conference’s ethical thematics in relation to Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar and what he terms “the politics of images”. Jaar, who is the 40th winner of the International Hasselblad Award in Photography, prompts us to consider how we produce, look at and make meaning of photographic representations of social injustice. Louise Wolthers(Researcher and Curator at Hasselblad Foundation)
17.00- 17.30 Mingle for those who want to stay on
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June 16th I will talk about "Collaborative Practices in The Baltic States in The Late 1960s: Modris Tenisons’ Pantomime Troupe and Vitas Luckus’ Pantomime Series."
The Conference will be broadcast through the Conference Facebook page - Scientific International Conference 2021.
You are welcome to follow the Conference page on the website of the Art Academy of Latvia
(https://www.lma.lv/petnieciba
and Social media accounts - Scientific International Conference 2021
(https://www.facebook.com/Inte
and Instagram - lma_scientific_conference.
In these unusual, peculiar times, a new photo festival is emerging in Kranj, Slovenia, addressing the challenging topic of ISOLATION | FREEDOM.
Exploring critical issues of our era, the Kranj Foto Fest attempts to bring together a range of different perspectives from emerging and established photographers and visual artists from all over the world.
I am glad to become a part of the exhibition ISOLATION | FREEDOM, with my project Surveillance, which will take place in Kranj, Slovenia during the Kranj Foto Fest 2021.
The results of the Open Call published here:
https://kranjfotofest.com/open
The event will happen during the summer. The opening week is from 25th to 29th August 2021.
I am grateful to the team of the exhibition Mattias Andersson, Sara Ekholm Eriksson and Nicole Newsha Khadivi for their help in the installation of my work.
Hope to upload some photographs soon!
The exhibition of a site-specific artworks "PANOPTIKON: ’Of and for Sight’" at Långholmen’s former prison, arranged and realised by Mattias Andersson, Sara Ekholm Eriksson and Nicole Newsha Khadivi - students at the Royal Institute of Art of Sweden.
The artworks are displayed at Långholmen's old prison courtyard, in the old exercise yard shaped like a Panopticon. A Panopticon is an architectural principle where the prison guard from a point in a semicircle can monitor all inmates.
In the book "Crime and Punishment" by Focault, we read in the chapter "Panopticism" about the emergence of the surveillance society due to the Plague. For natural reasons, we think about the forced isolation that has affected the world's population over the past year. Ethical issues around surveillance, punishment and imprisonment came to be the theme of our exhibition. We have done collective research in the subject where we have invited external artists, curators, art critics and researchers.
Participating artists:
Mattias Andersson, Sara Ekholm Eriksson, Moa Engström, Vladyslav Kamensky, Nicole Newsha Khadivi, Georg Nordmark, Valentyn Odnoviun, Annie Tådne
Opening hours:
June 1st - 15th
Vernissage June 1st: 16:00 - 19:30
Finnissage June 13th: 14:00 - 19:00
All other days in between: 12:00-19:00
Location:
Långholmsmuren 20, 117 33 Stockholm, Sweden
Thanks to:
Långholmens Hotell & Restaurang
Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson, professor at SU in ethics with a focus on supervision.
Anne Vigeland, curator and Sales & Exhibitions Manager at "Humans since 1982"
Elias Kautsky, curator and project coordinator at Stockholm Art
Karl Lydén, art critic and doctoral student in philosophy with a focus on Focault at Södertörn University
Ola Nyman, marketing manager and museum guide at Långholmen Hotell & Restaurang
]]>Sharing with you some photographs from the exhibition "Ästhetik der Überwachung" in Dresden, Germany.
More information here: Kunsthaus Raksolnikow and Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße.
I am glad to share such a piece of great news with you!
From April 20 until June 25, the project "Surveillance" will be shown at the "Ästhetik der Überwachung" exhibition in the Kunsthaus Raksolnikow and Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße in Dresden, Germany.
Curator: Tomasz Lewandowski
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Feeling great to be in a company of amazing photographers who received this nomination this year.
You can check the latest news from the FOAM Amsterdam here: https://www.foam.org
FOAM Paul Huf Award Winners from 2007 till 2020: https://www.foam.org/talent/foam-paul-huf-award
Special thanks to Adam Mazur for Nomination!
This article was published in the latest Literatūra ir menas magazine, but in Lithuanian and more shortened form. here, I would like to present you a full English version of the article.
“Two creative circles: Intersections among Lithuanian and Kharkiv Art Photographers from the late 1960s until 1980s.”
Many interesting connections and inspirations took place from the late 1960s until 1980s among selected art photographers of the unofficial Vremia group from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and members of the officially supported Society of Art Photographers of the Lithuanian SSR. In 2015 I found out that Jury Rupin, one of the founders of the Vremia group, moved to and lived in Lithuania for around twenty years. Already in Lithuania, he wrote Photographer’s Diary, Luriki, and A Photographer’s Diary in the Archives of the KGB, in which he revealed information about the history of the Vremia group, its members’ activity, and partially described their intersections with and inspirations by the Lithuanian colleagues. But what was the context in which these two creative circles emerged, and how did these intersections influence the development of art photography in both countries?
At that time, art photographers existed within the Soviet system which practiced censorship, stressed conformity, and propagated an officially approved ideology. As creative individuals, they were often challenged by these factors and resisted against them to various degrees and in different ways as they expressed their own creative visions, joining the shift to change the photographic medium.
By the late 1960s, photography was no longer regarded as primarily documentary and started to be recognized as an art form in the West. Photography also came to be considered as art in the Soviet Union and was influenced by major European tendencies through fellow Socialist bloc countries, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia. However, it was practiced under more restrictive conditions of the Socialist Realism, the only officially approved Soviet aesthetics.
Lithuania played a leading role in the evolution of photography in the Soviet Union. The Society of Art Photographers was founded in Vilnius in 1969, establishing a new form of creative institution, which, among other activities, aided the development of art photography by staging exhibitions, seminars, and assisting with participation in foreign competitions. Lithuanian photographers were able to stretch boundaries in some cases through strategically and pragmatically maintaining relations with the party and the government, thus giving them the opportunity to improve conditions for their creativity more openly and on a larger scale in pursuing their photographic aims. This society was the only one of its type in the whole Soviet Union until 1989 and attracted photographers from different republics. In the early 1970s, as Jury Rupin mentioned in his writings, the words “Lithuanian photography” also had a magical meaning for Kharkiv photographers, who always searched for well-known Lithuanian names in the Soviet photography periodicals. The preference was given to less self-censored and more creative photographers such as Vitas Luckus, Vitalijus Butyrinas, and Aleksandras Macijauskas. Another Kharkiv photographer, Evgeniy Pavlov mentioned that Luckus “pushed” his colleagues in the direction of wide-angle photography, but Kharkiv photographers moved even further, applying wide-angle to their so-called “Punch Theory” and created panoramic 120° shots for their needs.
The Vremia group was founded by Jury Rupin and Evgeniy Pavlov in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1971, and included the most creative members of the Kharkiv photo club such as Boris Mikhailov, Oleg Maliovany, Gennadiy Tubalev, Oleksandr Suprun, Oleksandr Sitnichenko, and Anatoliy Makiyenko, who joined the group later. Being unofficial, the group did not have funding and was not able to publish its own catalogs, or to have sponsored exhibitions, but operated more on the margins of society, which is reflected in their selected subject matter and styles. Paradoxically, the absence of state support freed them from self-censorship and conformity and as a result, Kharkiv photographers were more often summoned to the KGB to explain their activities. In contrast, self-censorship affected the works of some Lithuanian photographers, which influenced their styles and topics. Despite such organizational differences, the Vremia group functioned in a somewhat analogous way to the Society of Art Photographers, which brought together the core of the innovative photography scene, encouraged the exchange of artistic approaches, and supported each other’s initiatives.
Having no special place for group gatherings, Kharkiv photographers met at their apartments or at the regional photography club, where they had discussions with other club members. Such “amateurish” places as photo clubs organized for the masses, became some of the first places for artistic growth and development. Communication and common discussions of works of different photographers were the most important activity. In 1970-1971, somebody brought to the Kharkiv photo club a part of Luckus’ Pantomime series printed on large format high-quality paper, this event was later mentioned in Jury Rupins’ Photographer’s Diary.
Performative Pantomime series captured actors of Kaunas pantomime troupe, impressed photo club members by its technological features and particularly artistic use of a photographic medium. These photographs were instantaneously recognized as art photography. The actors were extracted from their theatrical environment and were placed into the context of staged Soviet reality. Kharkiv photographers saw a like-minded person in Vitas Luckus and his Pantomime revealed “other” photography which served as a trigger for their creative experiments. The next year Evgeniy Pavlov, being partially inspired by Luckus’ Pantomime, created his series Violin, in which he depicted naked Kharkiv hippies near a waterfront. A violin that one of the hippies brought with him unintentionally became the main subject of the series. The manifested hippies’ desire to be closer to nature, to be a part of it, and to seek freedom of expression, was in a way a protest against the Soviet lifestyle. The namesake photo book, published in 2019, includes the original versions of some photographs, made as vertical panoramic shots. However, back in the 1970s, only more “traditional” cropped images were presented and in 1973, the Violin was published in the Polish magazine Fotografia.
This series inspired Jury Rupin to create the Bathhouse (1972), one of his most prominent projects, in which he depicted naked bodies of men in the bathhouse. Photographs were taken not outside but in a closed environment. The shots with a longer exposition time captured the dynamism, some body parts left unfocused. However, it is not clear if Rupin did it on purpose or accidentally. Although men’s genitals are visible in the images, these photographs were not banned by Soviet authorities, since they were taken in a bathhouse, a proper communal place for being naked and considered to promote a healthy lifestyle of a socialist proletariat.
1. Vitas Luckus, Pantomime series, 1968-1972, Courtesy: Šiaulių „Aušros“ muziejus
2-3. Evgeniy Pavlov, Violin series, 1972, Courtesy of the author
4. Jury Rupin, Bathhouse series, 1972, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP
Luckus opened freedom of action for Kharkiv photographers and Pavlov later developed this freedom on a larger scale, including naked male bodies to his work, and Rupin managed to avoid censorship. All three series display dynamism, but each in a different manner, and include some depictions of the naked body. They have somewhat similar ideas of performativity but expressed through different presentation methods.
Although Kharkiv photographers knew about Vitas Luckus already in the early 1970s, Jury Rupin only got acquainted with Luckus personally in 1975. This happened accidentally during one of his trips with Boris Mikhailov. They met Luckus and his wife Tatjana Luckienė in Sudak (Crimea, Ukraine). During that trip, they spent a lot of time talking about photography and soon became friends. Later, Boris Mikhailov gifted Luckus an album of photographs from that trip. Another short meeting happened in Vilnius after Rupin and Mikhailov visited Nida and Klaipėda. During their second trip to Lithuania, Mikhailov and Rupin, thanks to Luckus, met with other famous Lithuanian photographers Rimantas Dichavičius and Vitalijus Butyrinas. Before that, Kharkiv photographers already knew photomontages created by Butyrinas and were inspired by him as well.
Photomontage was popular among not only European but Soviet photographers as well and was practiced by many artists from the late 1960s until the 1990s. Vitalijus Butyrinas is the most successful in the use of this technique. Also, it was used by Ukrainian born Latvian photographer Vilhelms Mihailovskis and Polish photographer Zofia Rydet (born in Stanisławów, Poland, now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine), who created a cycle of montages titled A World of Feelings and Imagination (1975–1979). Photomontages of Butyrinas present a reflective mood, which includes either scenes from nature or female bodies, and show a distinctive combination of the surreal and the romantic and the real, which was considered a new approach to photography in the 1970s. Among Kharkiv photographers, photomontages and collages were created by Oleg Maliovany, Oleksandr Suprun, Jury Rupin, and Evgeniy Pavlov.
Oleksandr Suprun selected this technique as the main one for his artworks. As was mentioned in Rupin’s diary, he became inspired by the work of Butyrinas but the mood of his photomontages differs from that of Butyrinas’. Suprun’s photomontages were created from collected components of different objects, people, skies, etc. It took months in order to collect the necessary parts. Also, he copied people or objects and often mirrored them in his work. He concentrated mainly on relevant social themes of that time. Despite all technical manipulations, the style of his montages reminds rather of reportage-style photography, than of a creation of “other worlds,” compared to the works of Maliovany, Pavlov, Mihailovskis, Rydet, or Butyrinas.
5. Oleksandr Suprun, Bath Attendant, 1968-1972, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP
6. Vitalijus Butyrinas, Cottage by the sea, 1983, Courtesy of the author
7. Vitalijus Butyrinas, Music. Neringa series, 1983, Courtesy of the author
Also, Suprun’s series Markets reminds of photographs made at rural markets by Lithuanian photographer Aleksandras Macijauskas, who photographed markets with a wide-angle lens, close-ups, and ironic outlook. In A Photographer’s Diary in the Archives of KGB, Rupin mentioned how members of the Vremia group talked with Suprun concerning the topic of markets that had already been explored by Aleksandras Macijauskas. Indeed, some of Suprun’s works recall photographs made by Macijauskas, but the main difference is that in the case of Suprun, the “reportage” is, in fact, a montage created from several images. Suprun’s markets present scenes not actually photographed, but accurately created by the author.
8. Aleksandras Macijauskas, Prienai, 1971, Lithuanian village markets series, Courtesy of the author
9. Oleksandr Suprun, Markets series, 1988, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP
Another technique practiced by photographers from Lithuania and Kharkiv was isohelia. This method was invented in Lviv in 1936 by Witold Romer and was based on the process of copying photographic negative onto a high contrast photo paper. The reduction of the tonal range into several brightness intensity areas, made the isohelia technique useful in scientific research but was appropriated for artistic needs as well.
10. Oleg Maliovany, The age of beauty, 1973, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP
Among Lithuanian photographers, isohelia was practiced by Povilas Karpavičius, already in the late 1930s and Rimgaudas Maleckas. Karpavičius later advanced the technique to produce isohelia works in color. In 1957, he presented his works at the international exhibition in Wroclaw, Poland, being the only photographer from the Soviet Union. Povilas Karpavičius also shared his knowledge and photographic techniques with the next generation of Lithuanian artists, including Vitas Luckus, Aleksandras Macijauskas, and Vitalijus Butyrinas. Later, isohelia reached Latvia, where it was used mainly by Valters Jānis Ezeriņš. In Kharkiv, it was practiced mainly by Oleg Maliovany from the mid-1960s, who later taught Jury Rupin this technique. Later, Rupin made portraits of his friends using this technique, including a portrait of Vitas Luckus.
11. Vitas Luckus’ portrait, Author: Jury Rupin, Reproduction by Valentyn Odnoviun
Photomontage, collage, and isohelia were primarily regarded by the Soviet authorities as too formal. Naturally, they were a platform for experiments with a photographic medium in search of new ways of expression.
Later, photographers developed a new visual language, in which the idea, concept, prevailed over the form. Mikhailov’s conceptual approaches considerably influenced the next generations of artists, including Lithuanian photographers Virgilijus Šonta, Remigijus Pačėsa, and Alfonsas Budvytis. Also, the project of Boris Mikhailov Unfinished Dissertation presents some intertextual references to the Lithuanian photographers Algirdas Šeškus, Vytautas Balčytis.
12. Evgeniy Pavlov in Nida, Author: Uladzimir Parfianok, 1987, Courtesy: Evgeniy Pavlov
Evgeniy Pavlov made his trip to Lithuania only once. He visited the Nida Photography Symposium in 1987, where he became friends with Belarusian photographer Uladzimir Parfianok. The main interactions between Kharkiv photographers with like-minded Lithuanian colleagues ended abruptly in 1987, after Vitas Luckus tragic death.
13. Scheme illustrating social connections and mutual inspirations among Kharkiv and Lithuanian photographers, Courtesy: Valentyn Odnoviun
Being produced in separate locations, the works of Ukrainian and Lithuanian photographers reflect differences in the political and cultural environments, specific to those places, along with some common features, occurred due to their interactions. These works serve as examples of how art develops through a mysterious combination of personal inspirations from one artist to another, as well as through the absorption and application of common major trends.
The article is written for the project Kharkiv School of Photography: from the Soviet censorship to new aesthetics, сommissioned by the Ukrainian Institute for the Ukraine Everywhere programme
Bibliography:
1,7,8,11,15 - Рупин, Юрий, Дневник фотографа, Самиздат;
2 - Рупин, Юрий, Лурики, 20.08.1989 – 9.04.2005, Самиздат;
3 - Рупин, Юрий, Дневник фотографа в архивах КГБ, Самиздат;
4 - Cotton, Charlotte. The Photograph as Contemporary Art, 3rd edition, London: Thames & Hudson, 2014, 256 p., ISBN: 9780500204184;
5 - Matulytė, Margarita, Uzurpuota realybė: lietuvių fotografijos sovietizavimo procesai ir kolizijos (Usurped Reality. The Processes and Collisions of the Sovietization of Lithuanian Photography), Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, t:58: Menas kaip socialinis diskursas, 2010, p. 71- 93, ISBN: 9786094470011;
6 - Michelkevičius, Vytautas. The Lithuanian SSR Society of Art Photography (1969-1989): An Image production Network. Vilnius: Vilnius Academy of Arts Press, 1st edition 2011, 416 p., ISBN: 9786094470332;
9,10 - Pavlova, Tatiana, Late 1960s to 1960s - The Vremya Group’s Time, in: Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics. 1970-1980s, VASA – project;
12 - Pavlov, Yevgeniy, Violin, Rodovid : Ukraine, 2018, 128 p., ISBN: 9786177482269;
13 - Fotografia,1973 (1), Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Arkady, p. 10-11;
14 - Vitas Luckus. Biography, Edited by Matulytė, Margarita, Luckienė-Aldag, Tatjana, Vilnius: Lithuanian Art Museum, Kaunas Branch of the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers, 2014, 248 p., ISBN: 9786094260568;
16 - Гайжутис, Альгирдас, Фотохудожник Виталий Бутырин, По материалам книги Виталия Бутырина Избранные фотографии, Москва: Планета, 1991, Mi Kron;
17 - Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics. 1970-1980s, Video interviews, VASA – project;
18 - Сандуляк, Алина, Харьковская школа фотографии: Александр Супрун, Art Ukraine, 30.07.2018;
19 - The History of Polish Photography, Culture.pl, 04.06.2002;
20 - Narušytė, Agnė, The Aesthetics of Boredom. Lithuanian Photography 1980 - 1990, Vilnius Academy of Arts, 2010, 352 p., ISBN: 9789955854968;
Illustrations:
1. Vitas Luckus, Pantomime series, 1968-1972, Courtesy: Šiaulių „Aušros“ muziejus
2-3. Evgeniy Pavlov, Violin series, 1972, Courtesy of the author
4. Jury Rupin, Bathhouse series, 1972, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP, Provided by the curator of the project Kharkiv School of Photography: From Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics Igor Manko
5. Oleksandr Suprun, Bath Attendant, 1968-1972, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP, Provided by the curator of the project Kharkiv School of Photography: From Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics Igor Manko
6. Vitalijus Butyrinas, Cottage by the sea, 1983, Courtesy of the author
7. Vitalijus Butyrinas, Mucis. Neringa series, 1983, Courtesy of the author
8. Aleksandras Macijauskas, Prienai, 1971, Lithuanian village markets series, Courtesy of the author
9. Oleksandr Suprun, Markets series, 1988, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP, Provided by the curator of the project Kharkiv School of Photography: From Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics Igor Manko
10. Oleg Maliovany, The age of beauty, 1973, Courtesy: Vasa project / MOKSOP, Provided by the curator of the project Kharkiv School of Photography: From Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics Igor Manko
11. Vitas Luckus’ portrait, Author: Jury Rupin, Reproduction by Valentyn Odnoviun
12. Evgeniy Pavlov in Nida, Author: Uladzimir Parfianok, 1987, Courtesy: Evgeniy Pavlov
13. Scheme illustrating social connections and mutual inspiration among Kharkiv and Lithuanian photographers, Courtesy: Valentyn Odnoviun
]]>Here I will post my article about the Month of Lithuanian Photography in Kyiv.
The article is in Lithuanian language, but you can enjoy photographs from the event and use any of online translators to read it:
]]>I would like to share an interview with me made by LRT TV channel, Trembita program (Lithuania).
Somehow, it does not work to install video into the body of this post.
Here is the link on it:
Interview in Ukrainian with Lithuanian subtitles.
Interviewer: Viktor Černišuk
Special thanks to Petro Pyrohov for making this interview happen.
]]>For all those who are interested in Eastern Europe photography, presenting to you video presentation that was made by me in frames of the Kharkiv Photo Forum.
BALTIC AND UKRAINIAN ART PHOTOGRAPHERS: SOCIAL INTERSECTIONS AND VISUAL INSPIRATIONS
The overview of the presentation
BALTIC AND UKRAINIAN ART PHOTOGRAPHERS: SOCIAL INTERSECTIONS AND VISUAL INSPIRATIONS
Many interesting social connections and inspirations took place among art photographers from several Soviet republics during the 1960s–1980s, however
research on the history of art photography mainly focused and described prominent individuals and photography groups in local context of one city or
country. The influences and inspirations that helped in the development of art photographers’ main styles are still under-researched.
Nevertheless, interactions between photographers inside the Soviet Union were extensive and there was a place for mutual inspirations among photographers from Baltic states and Ukraine. These intersections included groups and individuals, the unofficial “Vremya” group, founded in 1971 in Kharkiv, Ukraine had social interactions and mutual inspirations with selected members of the Society of Art Photographers of the Lithuanian SSR, officially established in 1969 and benefitted from the Soviet authorities. The informal “Keturi” group from Chernivtsi, Ukraine, which was founded in 1977, mainly had contact with Latvian photographers and members of so-called “A” group, created in 1984.
This presentation focuses on providing historical awareness of social connections among the Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Latvian art photographers, their influence on each other, as well as their differences, and to trace the process of migration of creative ideas and technical approaches in the context of the Soviet censorship that shaped the direction of photography of that period.
These groups of art photographers sought freedom of creative expression, developed artistically and expanded the limits of social reportage, namely, Vitas Luckus and Andrejs Grants. In some cases, photographers used what were then more exotic approaches, like, the use of wide-angle perspective in works of Aleksandras Macijauskas and later Boris Mikhailov, Evgeniy Pavlov and Victor Kochetov. Some techniques as collage and photomontage were used by Vitalijus Butyrinas, Oleksandr Suprun, Vilhelms Mihailovskis and Oleg Maliovany, and isohelia and photographics by Rimgaudas Maleckas, Valters Jānis Ezeriņš, Oleg Maliovany and Juri Rupin. Another example, conceptualized hand-coloring of Boris Mikhailov that was later used by Vytautas Balčytis and Algirdas Šeškus. Research includes more similarities between other photographers that may not be so evident at first glance. The visual similarities between some works of Baltic and Ukrainian art photographers raises the question about the nature of artistic influence, and if it was due to the conscious copying of others’ styles, or to the unconscious use of the ideas that were popular then.
Analysis of works and social connections of selected art photographers, who actively worked in the field of photography in the 1960s–1980s, is evidence that the works produced in these separate locations reflect differences in the political and cultural surroundings specific to those places, along with some features in common due to their interactions. These interactions resulted in similarities between individual photographers and their styles that were used during those times which created new platforms for emerging photography art groups in Ukraine and the Baltic states.
More about the Kharkiv Photo Forum here: http://kphf.com.ua/en
More videos at the Kharkiv Photo Forum Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXiPw6O_TJ80Bk6KJRmEaHg
To download the catalog of the Kharkiv Photo Forum: http://kphf.com.ua/en/catalog
]]>
I am honoured that Natalija Arlauskaitė talks about my project "Surveillance" in her research, that was published by Vilnius University Press this year.
You can purchase the "Nuožmi taika: žlugusių režimų fotografija dokumentiniame kine" from the author or the publisher.
The book is in Lithuanian.
Link to buy the book: www.patogupirkti.lt
Link to the website of Natalija Arlauskaitė: arlauskaite.lt
will be opening of the exhibition titled "PW44."
Information about the exhibition at the Lithuanian Art Photographers Association website in English
Article about the project at the BirdinFlight Ukrainian art platform in Russian language
Article about the project at the BirdinFlight Ukrainian art platform in Ukrainian language
Specially, for the opening, I created handmade Artist Book in edition of 44 copies:
You can purchase the Artist Book following this link: PW44 Artist Book or at the exhibition opening.
I am thankful to the Lithuanian Art Photographers Association and the Lithuanian Council for Culture for supporting this exhibition project.
All works printed by the foto123.lt
Glad to be a part of the group exhibition of contemporary Lithuanian photography "Lost Time" in frames of the Month of Lithuanian Photography in Kyiv (MOLPIK), Ukraine.
Special thanks to Darius Vaičekauskas, organizer of the MOLPIK and curator of the "Lost Time" exhibition.
Link to the short video presentation of the MOLPIK
Website of the MOLPIK in English and Ukrainian
Information about the exhibition "Lost Time" at the Mystetskyi Arsenal gallery.
Information about the MOLPIK in Lithuanian
]]>
I am very glad that the project Surveillance is presented in Sopot, Poland, as a part of the 6th Edition of the Photography Festival W Ramach Sopotu.
A little bit more information about my project in Polish here:
http://wramachsopotu.pl/valentyn-odnoviun/
A part of the interview in English by Vera Zborovska for the Contemporary Lynx Magazine (London, Great Britain):
INSIDE VIEW
In conversation with Valentyn Odnoviun
From the 4th to the 20th of September in the Polish city of Sopot will be held the photography festival “W Ramach Sopotu”. During the 6th edition of the festival the exhibiting artists will include not only residents from Poland such as Marta Berens, Maksymilian Rigamonti and Piotr Zbierski, but also foreign photographers: Sergey Melnitchenko (Ukraine) and Valentyn Odnoviun (Lithuania). I had a chance to talk with Valentyn about his art and the photographer’s future.
Vera Zborovska: How did you begin your journey with photography? Which photographers influenced you?
Valentyn Odnoviun: I first started with photography at 17 years old as a part of the rehabilitation after undergoing heavy cancer treatment via chemotherapy and radiation, from the age of 13.
My “dive” into conceptual photography began when in 2014 I started my MA research titled “Correlation Between the Image and the Reason for the Image” at Vilnius Art Academy, Photography and Media Arts Department.
I wouldn’t say it was actual photographers who influenced me. I would say that above all I was influenced by philosophers such as Vilem Flusser and Jacques Derrida, by my supervisor professor Alvydas Lukys, by the artworks of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko as well as forensic investigators.
VZ: Do you think photography is an illustration of reality or does it generate its own reality?
VO: A photograph does not tell us much by itself. For me, a photograph is more a canvas that is open for interpretation.
Inspired by Jacek Tylicki
VZ: In that case the viewer has a key role in the interpretation of the photograph. If so, don’t you think that the viewer must also have the historical and aesthetic context of the photograph?
VO: With an “abstract” photograph the viewer plays a bigger role in the reaction to, and thus the creation of the image, which is triggered by the context and reflected back from the surface of the photograph into the viewer’s mind.
If we merely look at an unknown photograph, it is impossible to know what it is a photograph of; without history or context, a range of interpretations can surface. The viewer himself creates meaning based on the baggage of his personal, cultural and historical experience and to some extent from collective unconsciousness memory. The image acquires its meaning in the context in which it was placed, and this meaning becomes a new reality for it.
...
full interview: https://contemporarylynx.co.uk/inside-view-in-conversation-with-valentyn-odnoviun
Interviewed by Vera Zborovska
Edited by Laura Mancini
Link to the begining of the online exhibition:
https://eepberlin.org/blogs/news/heterotopia-concept
Link to the exhibition of the project "Surveillance":
https://eepberlin.org/blogs/news/surveillance-by-valentyn-odnoviun
The text on the SURVEILLANCE project by Katažyna Jankovska
The power of the gaze manifests itself through surveillance. However, this type of power has its ground not so much in an observer, but rather in certain tools of observation that establish hierarchical divisions and become the most effective form of discipline and control. In his photography project “Surveillance” (2016–2018), Valentyn Odnoviun refers to the notion of the gaze as a method of empowering and disempowering through one aptly chosen, universal architectural detail — the observation hole. This tool — which redistributes power by drawing that divisive line between the observer and the observed — turns one side into an object of observation, and provides power and supremacy to the other. But here, it no longer works for its original purpose — no one looks through these spyholes anymore, and even if one were to, it is impossible to see anything. While looking at photographs of observation holes magnified against a solid background, a variety of interpretations and images come to mind. One can surrender to the romantic idea of looking through the glass of a telescope or microscope, observing distant planets, a window overgrown with frost or mold, cluttered cobwebs or the otherworldliness of humble cell culture samples.
To comprehend the actual power of surveillance, the artist transforms this tool
of observation into an object of observation itself and, in doing this, questions the
controlling gaze and oppression forces which take on ever new meanings and forms.
Michel Foucault, in his seminal work "Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of Prison" (1975), discusses how disciplinary power stems from hierarchical observation. In earlier days, enclosure and confinement were the main methods of surveillance; Foucault calls the prison the most striking artifact of a disciplinary society, a system-operation perfected for surveillance and control. As such, when Odnoviun presents a collection of enlarged and uniformly framed photographs of spyholes in former Eastern European political prisons, we adopt the very lens through which repressive KGB and Stasi prison supervisors spied upon political prisoners in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland and Germany.
The close-ups of the prison cell door spyholes reminisce
the universal symbol of an omnipotent all-seeing eye,
becoming a leftover trace of repressive supervision.
However, the reliance on this architectural detail complicates the possibility of constant control. And further to separating the observer from the observed, the spyhole creates a connection between the two: a visual channel of communication. This small thoroughfare forces the viewer to get closer to what he is observing. It would seem that to observe is not without proximate risk — to learn the object of observation begets the very real danger of identifying with it.
To prevent against this problem, the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century created a prototype of an ideal prison, a prescient work of architecture called the panopticon. Central to it is an observation tower placed within a ring-shaped building of prison cells, which allows all prisoners to be observed by a single security guard, yet unseen by the prisoners. But more than just an architectural structure, Foucault suggests that the genius of the panopticon is vested in its self-surveilling effects.
The haunting by an invisible supervisor renders physical coercion and overt observation
or communication meaningless, for as the gaze of surveillance is turned in upon oneself,
its ultimate results are self-regulation and self-discipline.
Emergence of new technologies would later alter the nature of surveillance, but still resound the same principles. In George’s Orwell dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949), the city of London uncannily resembles the architecture of Bentham’s panopticon. In it, the citizens are presided over by a watchful government; telescreens installed in every apartment function as an extension of the panoptic mechanism, which enables the government to extend its reach into their homes.
Odnoviun’s photographs remind us that we do not have to be imprisoned in order to be observed and controlled. We are coerced by means of observation. Today, the panopticon has moved beyond the prisons and takes on a more decentralized and less tangible form. It is no longer the watchtower in the center of a circular prison that observes but a complex modern digital surveillance system comprising CCTV surveillance cameras and algorithms. Physical surveillance has been replaced with personal data harvesting — every human step, every button pressed, is tracked. With the deconstruction of the watchtower, it grows easier to forget (or deny) that we are under observation. The all-seeing eye of the system has now permeated every aspect of our everyday life, with striking likeness to Orwell’s dystopian scenario.
The novel’s famed slogan "Big Brother is watching you" may appear
more like "Big Brother is watching out for you", but irrespective
of this softened mandate, the fact stands that he is still watching.
The Big Brothers became law enforcement agencies, telecom and commercial companies licensed by the state to track and monitor citizens, establishing full, global oversight.
To describe this state of affairs, American sociologist Shoshana Zuboff has recently coined the term "surveillance capitalism" to refer to a profit-generating economic model in which consumer data becomes free, raw material to be milked for market value. Importantly, this is a mechanism through which power is deindividualized — we are monitored, but we do not know by whom. We are controlled, but we do not experience direct violence. The totalitarian Big Brother mutates into The Big Other; the ubiquitous anonymous power that transforms the gaze mode into a new form of oppression is the realization of a digital panopticon.
The main difference between the traditional panopticon and the modern panoptic society, is that in Bentham’s vision, subjects do not know when they are being watched, but in the modern panopticon, the subjects are not even aware of it. The self-surveilling habit may ease, but this gives way to an insidious purpose: to allow subjects to forget that they are under surveillance at all. The experience of self-awareness that the watchful eye arouses is taken away, but it must be emphasized that the personal liberty afforded in turn is nothing more than a persuasive fiction.
Today we bear witness to an extraordinary situation.
The pandemic that has shaken the world has highlighted, in part,
the mass surveillance system which justifies its existence by promising a solution,
or at least an aid, to an equally invisible threat.
The cooperation between government and corporations allow for an unprecedented access to data under the guise of virus control, which goes under-questioned in spite of its violation to fundamental civil human rights. To these ends, taking a plague-stricken town as his example, Michel Foucault wrote: "The Plague gave rise to disciplinary projects. Rather than a massive, binary division between one set of people and another, it called for multiple separations, individualizing distributions, an organization in depth of surveillance and control, an intensification and ramification of power". Today’s world becomes the totalitarian utopia of flawless, airtight governance — "this enclosed, segmented space, observed at every point, in which the individuals are inserted in a fixed place."
The screen we look at every day operates just like the cell door spyhole, which remains the prisoner's only way to glean a seemingly free world beyond — one which is, in fact, just as restricted, dictated by the authoritative power. The abstract quality of Valentyn’s body of work creates an illusion, deceiving the viewer about what is actually seen, or can be seen.
The illusion of free thought supported by persuasive imagery
reflects the paradox of our relationship with the screen.
Visuality is a trap. In tracking our digital devices, not only is our data collected, but by its very analysis, it is re-deployed to shape what we see and edit out what we don’t see. We are exposed to content generated by algorithms that cultivate our desires before we even come to be aware of them. In this way, we are doubly isolated — both physically and, at the same time, enclosed in microcosms of generated social networks. While looking at Valentyn’s photographs, one might similarly succumb to the illusion that obscures the narrowness of the visible perspective: for a moment you forget that you see only a small part of an area, a limited opening in the door, only as much space as is left for your gaze.
While at this moment looking through your screen at the rhythmically repeating round shapes of the spyholes, your gaze bounces back and forth with each photo, never quite penetrating the glass. The gaze is returned to its observer, an unsettling situation of "seeing oneself seeing oneself". It upsets the illusion that the viewer's gaze holds the power. This self-reflexive look does not allow us to comfortably define our position: which side one is on — the observer or the observed? How can we be sure that we are not the object of surveillance ourselves?
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Presented for the first time in public, a photography book Surveillance: A Typology of Oppression contains full photo project that was exhibited only partly in 2019 at the Latvian Museum’s of Photography exhibition “In the dark”. At the event, artist will talk about his book “Surveillance. A Typology of Oppression” and his latest projects.
The event will take place on August 20, 2020 at 6 pm at the Latvian Museum of Photography, Marstalu Street 8 (entrance from Alksnaja Street).
LInk to the video presentation of the book: https://youtu.be/CFDgRTqaSWE
Information from the website of the Latvian Museum of Photography in English:
http://www.rigamuz.lv/lfm/en/news/valentyn-odnovjun-surveillance-a-typology-of-oppression/
Information from the website of the Latvian Museum of Photography in Latvian:
http://www.rigamuz.lv/lfm/aktualitates/gramata-noverosana-apspiesanas-tipologija/
The project is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Viktorija Bernotaitė
Viktorija Bernotaitė is a Lithuanian artist currently based in the UK, who explores the human-nature relationship through the photographic medium. The interest in nature, especially trees, emerges from her childhood and is an ever-appearing motif in her practice. This year Viktorija graduated from the Falmouth University (BA (Hons) Photography) and since 2017 has participated in group exhibitions in the UK.
Valentyn Odnoviun
Valentyn Odnoviun, Ukrainian living and working in Lithuania, has studied at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Photography Department (MA) and Art History and Theory Department (MA). Currently writing a PhD dissertation at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute. He has won several awards, one of the latest being Photolux Award in Italy in 2019. Between 2016-2019 nominated for photography awards, held personal and participated in collective exhibitions around Europe, in New Zealand, USA and Switzerland. Working with the “abstract-like” image author researches paradox of the perception of what we see and what we perceive in the act of recognition.
Martin T Raggio
Argentinian artist Martin T Raggio, born as a first-generation American, Martin splits his life between the United States and Argentina but is currently living in Berlin. The artist plays with photography using the “real world” to make his own conceptual reality. Recently, he has released a photobook “Riverville” and now is dedicated to working with analogue large format. Studied Media Arts at the University of Buenos Aires, graduated from EFTI with an MA in Contemporary Photography. Has participated in exhibitions in Argentina, Spain and Portugal.
Free entrance, the event will take place in English.
https://issp.lv/en/news/artist-talks-book-presentations-bernotaite-odnoviun-raggio
Thanks to the Lithuanian Council for Culture for support!
Waiting for online version to share it with you!
Some time ago, The Photographers' Gallery, London proposed to take part in their Instagram page takeover from May 21 until May 25, 2020.
It resulted with 15 posts about my different photo series.
Some examples you may see here.
To see my work and more other great projects, follow: @thephotographersgallery
The review is in Lithuanian language. You can read review online here: https://www.7md.lt/fotografija/2020-06-19/Quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes
Also, would like to remind, that you can purchase the book in Lithuania:
https://knygynas.biz/products/stebejimas-priezasties-tipologija
https://sixchairsbooks.lt/stocklist/photography/
https://artbooks.lt/produktas/valentyn-odnoviun-surveillance-a-typology-of-oppression/
In Latvia:
In Vienna, Austria:
For other countries follow this link: Surveillance. A Typology of Oppression
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me
link to the book at the artbooks.lt:
https://artbooks.lt/produktas/valentyn-odnoviun-surveillance-a-typology-of-oppression/
link to the books about photography, where you can find Surveillance as well, sixchairsbooks.lt:
https://sixchairsbooks.lt/stocklist/photography/
Valentyn Odnoviun’s Surveillance: A Typology of Oppression presents us with an alternative landscape—one marked by a vast network of prisons in and around the former Soviet Union. This book brings together 45 stunning photographs of spyholes from now-derelict prisons in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland, and Germany. Odnoviun has delicately captured an incredible amount of detail in the scratched, chipped, and patinaed surfaces of the slices of glass pictured in each of the images. Commentary by the artist along with that of scholar Agnė Narušytė and curator Jan Gustav Fiedler bring the series into context, reflecting on the work’s meaning as well as its materiality. Surveillance: A Typology of Oppression is an indispensible tome for anyone interested in contemporary photography and its intersections with twentieth century history, specifically that of oppressive regimes. It is truly a visual testament to the many lives that were directly affected by ideological repression then and still today.
– Ksenia Nouril, PhD
Jensen Bryan Curator, The Print Center, Philadelphia, USA
In 2018 Ksenia co-edited and contributed to the book Art and Theory of Post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe: A Critical Anthology (The Museum of Modern Art, 2018).
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© Valentyn Odnoviun
Edition 2020
Photographs: Valentyn Odnoviun
Designer: Gulnara Galiachmetova, Valentyn Odnoviun
Color separation: Raimundas Austinskas
Production supervisor: Daniel Samulevič
Texts: Agnė Narušytė, Jan Gustav Fiedler
Proof reading: Patrick Murphy, Lynn Odnovyun
Published by ARTPRINT in collaboration with Lithuanian Culture Research Institute
128 pages, 54 images, edition of 450 copies
Printed in Lithuania
ISBN 978-609-95181-9-0
As the author of the project "Surveillance" I am very grateful to my publisher Artprint, Gulnara Galiachmetova who helped me throughout the process of shaping the project into the form of a book, and Daniel Samulevič for production supervision; Lithuanian Culture Research Institute and to the director of the LCRI, Rasius Makselis, for co-funding this publication; Agnė Narušytė, for creating the essay about the project and for the continuous support in my beginnings in the field of art; Jan Gustav Fiedler, for curatorship of my exhibitions internationally and the text written specially for this book; Patrick Murphy, for editing texts for this book and for many hours spent in conversations about philosophy and photography; Lynn Odnovyun for proof reading; Raimundas Austinskas for color separation and preparing photographs for printing.
For the help in reaching the actual former political prisons and gathering information about them:
— Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (Vilnius, Lithuania);
— Burning Conscience — permanent exhibition on the resistance of the people of Cesis District to the Soviet and Nazi occupations (Cesis, Latvia);
— Museum of the Occupation of Latvia 1940-1991 (Riga, Latvia);
— National Museum-Memorial of Victims of the Occupation Regimes “Lontsky Street Prison” (Lviv, Ukraine);
— Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen (Berlin, Germany);
— Estonian Institute of Historical Memory (Tallinn, Estonia);
— Institute of National Remembrance (Poznan, Warsaw, Poland);
— Museum of Doomed Soldiers and Political Prisoners of the Polish People’s Republic (Warsaw, Poland).
Also, I would like to express my appreciation to professor Alvydas Lukys for his invaluable impact on my development as an artist, Margaryta Zubrii for help and support during creation of the latest projects, Rucka Artist Residency and Ieva Dreibante, Docking Station Residency team and the experts I met during the residency, Iris Sikking, Ksenia Nouril, Elīna Kalniņa, Aija Abene, Ruslan Zabily, Eugenijus Peikštenis, Bogumiła Berdychowska, André Kockisch, Gert Rahnel, Rafał Michliński and Evaldas Rimšelis.
I appreciate all of the energy and time invested by the people who helped me along the way to create this project and the actual book. I look forward to thanking them personally.
This project is dedicated to my father Viktor Odnovyun, who spent more than four years in three different prisons as an asylum-seeker.
To see more images from the project, click here: SURVEILLANCE PROJECT
You can purchase the book only, or the book with the exclusive print sized 20.4x17cm.
There are only 45 books which will include print (EACH book from those 45 will have a different exclusive print of one of the images in the book).
| Book Only/Book + Print |
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Outlaws and Spies by Conor McCarthy.
"Prison Cell Door Spyhole. KGB Prison, Cesis, Latvia" from the project Surveillance on the cover.
Link for pre-order:
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-outlaws-and-spies-hb.html
Thanks to Igor Manko for this proposition and curatorship of this exhibition.
Use menu on the left to move between parts of the exhibition.
http://www.vasa-project.com/galle…/valentyn/exhibit-page.php
Special thanks to the Lithuanian Council for Culture for supporting my project.
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This is my article about the exhibition of young Ukrainian art photographers in Klaipėda, Lithuania. The article is in Lithuanian.
In it I am writing about fruitful intersections between Ukrainian and Lithuanian photographers back in 1970s-1980s, how they almost stopped after the fall of the Soviet Union, changing priorities of the photographers to be oriented to the West, and how new intersections take place nowadays. Part of these new interactions is the exhibition of Ukrainian photographers "Love, Lust & Fury" curated by Darius Vaičekauskas and co-curated by Halyna Hleba.
Hopefully, the article will be available in English soon.
Link to the article in Lithuanian:
https://www.7md.lt/fotografija/2020-01-17/Ukrainieciu-inirsis-Klaipedoje-
If you do not read in Lithuanian, but interested in the article, use online translator for now.
Photographs by Sergey Melnitchenko
I am very honoured for such high appreciation of my work.
(Few years ago such collaboration was made with Wolfgang Tillmans)
Here is a list of some festivals, with hyperlinks to most of them (mainly, of those I have visited personally).
Hopefully, the list will be expanded with time with your help. Also, dates of the events and of deadlines will be added as well.
You can contact me by facebook, to write a comment to this post, or send an email.
Let's share some knowledge!
FOAM Talent, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Galerie Fotografic Open Call, Prague, Czech Republic (Free participation)
OFF Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
DEBUTS Award, by Blow Up Press Warsaw, Poland (Worth participating!)
Warsaw Photo Days Grand Prix, Warsaw, Poland
Krakow Photomonth, Crakow, Poland
SHOW OFF 2020 Krakow Photomonth - 15 November (If you really just a beginner)
INTERPHOTO Grand Prix, Bialystok, Poland (Free participation)
FOTOFESTIWAL GRAND PRIX, Lodz, Poland - 4 December (Worth participating!)
Debiutas Award for Emerging Art Photographers, Vilnius, Lithuania
Kaunas Gallery Weekend, Kaunas, Lithuania (Free participation)
Nida Photography Symposium, Nida, Lithuania (Worth visiting)
Kaunas Photo, Kaunas, Lithuania
Riga Photomonth, Riga, Latvia
Riga Photography Biennial, Riga, Latvia
Kolga Tbilisi Photo, Tbilisi, Georgia
Bird in Flight Prize, Kyiv, Ukraine
World Biennial of Student Photography, Novi Sad, Serbia (Free participation)
PIC Förderpreis, Neuss, Germany
NUIT de la PHOTO, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (Free, you're paid if you're selected to participate)
Photography Grant, London, Great Britain (Free participation)
Circulations, Paris, France
Auckland Festival of Photography, Auckland, New Zealand
BACKLIGHT Photo Festival, Tampere, Finland - 31 Oct 2019 (Worth participating!)
LANDSKRONA Foto Festival, Landskrona, Sweden - 10 November
RESIDENCIES
RUCKA Artist Residency, Cesis, Latvia (Free participation)
Kuldiga Photography Residency, Kuldiga, Latvia (Free participation, you paid)
]]>Special thanks to Jan Gustav Fiedler.
The opening was held October 17th. Exhibition will be opened until October 27th, 2019.
More information here: https://www.museum-of-now.com/
photographs taken from instagram of @pauleebm and @kevin_schulzbus_original
I became very honoured to be nominated by such serious institution for this prestigious award.
Later I became informed that the jury of the Photolux Award 2019 selected my series "Surveillance" as a winner of this years' edition of the festival!
The text by Lydia Dorner for nomination at the Photolux page
Link to the page of the Photolux Award 2019 of the announcement of the winner and honorable mentions
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As a winner of the INTERPHOTO GRAND PRIX Award 2017, I have been invited this year to participate at the INTERPHOTO 2019 Festival (festival run each two years.)
This year I presented the photo series "Horizons" as a personal exhibition of this project in frames of the festival. The opening was September 10th, and
took place at the House of Culture in Bialystok, Poland.
There are several photographs from the event at the Festivals' facebook page, link on some photographs at my facebook page and link to the information about the exhibition
The festival was great and the whole time was busy with making new contacts, meeting old friends and visiting a lot of great events prepared by the team of the INTERPHOTO.
Looking forward for the INTERPHOTO 2021 edition!
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Link to the photo report and information about the exhibition:
https://fotografic.cz/exhibit/valentyn-odnoviun-architecture-of-evidence-11-9-20-10-2019/
The exhibition Architecture of Evidence will be exhibited in Galerie Fotografic in Prague, Czech Republic.
https://fotografic.cz/upcoming/
At the exhibition will be presented several photo series, and slide projections of the latest research on the topic of oppressive regimes in Eastern Europe.
Opening will take place September 10th at 19.00
Address and contact of the gallery:
GALERIE FOTOGRAFIC
Stříbrná 2, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
T: + 420 603 186 470, +420 722 657 237
E: [email protected] | [email protected]
Project is supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture
]]>The series OFLAG 60 is a part of the project Architecture of Evidence, supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Original photographs made in OFLAG 60 in 1941-1942 were kindly presented to be rephotographed by the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights.
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So glad to be selected to become the next PhD student at the LCRI!
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at the Galerie Martin van Zomeren!
Opening June 1 at 17.00
address of the gallery: Hazenstraat 20,1016 SP Amsterdam
site of the gallery: http://gmvz.com/
link to the photographs from the exhibition: http://martinvanzomeren.nl/shows/dub-toasted-time
]]>My Congratulations! to other participants! The full list of participants (in Ukrainian) can be found here
More information will be later!
]]>At the exhibition will be presented 15 works from the project "Surveillance."
Online magazine Glasstire wrote about the SRO gallery and upcoming exhibition back in August of 2018.
https://glasstire.com/2018/08/28/what-is-the-sro-gallery-and-why-we-like-it/
Address:
Texas Tech School of Art University
3010 18th St, Lubbock, TX 79409
https://www.wired.com/story/surveillance-photo-gallery/
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Opening will be February 28th at 17.00 at the Latvian Museum of Photography, Mārstaļu iela 8, Riga.
Facebook event for an Artist-talk, March 1st:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2295945637303445/?active_tab=about
Facebook event for the exhibition opening February 28th:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2038362102939669/
Updates:
Interview by Arnis Balčus:
https://fotokvartals.lv/2019/02/28/pagatnes-retas-meklejot-intervija-ar-valentinu-odnovjunu/ (Latvian version)
https://fkmagazine.lv/2019/02/28/seeking-scars-of-the-past-interview-with-valentyn-odnoviun/ (English version)
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You can find the article by this link:
https://www.lensculture.com/articles/valentyn-odnoviun-surveillance
or go to www.lensculture.com, it is on the main front page!
Thanks to Jim Casper for this article and to Docking Station for this opportunity!
The Festival will take place in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, February 16.
link to the main page of the Festival internet page:
link to my profile at the Nuit de la Photo internet page:
https://www.nuitdelaphoto.ch/photographe-valentyn-odnoviun-surveillance
link to the expert meeting experience during Docking Station stay:
http://www.dockingstation.today/valentyn-odnoviun
What I can say about Docking Station:
‘Docking Station is a great platform for moving your project forward, improving your skills and gaining new knowledge for your development as a storyteller and artist. From now on, elements of the Docking Station experience will be reflected in each new project that I create.’
— Valentyn Odnoviun (Docker #23)
It was great time in the Netherlands during which I met a lot of new interesting people, expand my knowledge on some aspects of art photography, art book publishing and preparing personal exhibitions.
Thank you Marga Rotteveel and Anais Lopez!!!
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The stream record can be found here: lrt radio
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Award is given for impact on Lithuanian field of art photography in last few years.
Check Docking Station page and my story here:
http://www.dockingstation.today/valentyn-odnoviun/
Thanks to everybody who voted for my project!
Special thanks to Oleksandr Shchelushchenko from whom I got to know about the Photo Kyiv event and who encouraged me to take part in the contest!
Also, I would like to thanks to LLC Panasonic Ukraine Ltd! Will enjoy using this great camera for my future projects!
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Link to the information on the exhibition (in Lithuanian): press here
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Thanks to Not Vice Versa Art Concepts for including my project to that exhibition!
Site of the Monumenta: http://monumenta.art/
]]>During the program time I made new friends (inside of a program and outside of it), visited a lot of different Polish cities (and former prisons 
).
During the Gaude Polonia I created a new project called "Horizons." (that can bee seen with works of other scholars at the Labirynt Gallery in Lublin until August 12). Of course much things happened that can not be described here.
I would like to express words of thanks to all of you with whom I met during this program, who helped me with my project, with whom we had talks on philosophy and photography, visited parties, museums or just enjoyed company of each other!
But the most I would like to thank Bogumiła Berdychowska, curator of the Gaude Polonia program and Anna Kedziora, my project curator!
Thank you very much! It was a great time!
]]>Project was conducted under the scholarship by the National Center of Culture of Poland with support by the University of Arts, Poznan and with the help of the Institute of National Memory, Poland.
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I would like to thank all of those who voted for my project. It is an honor to know that my work is a choice of many!
Thank you very much! 
Link to the page of the organizer of the competition: myestonia
]]>June 23 at 7.00 PM
@ Vienna House (Andel's Lodz)
17 Ogrodowa St., Łódź (Poland)
The exhibition will be open to the public until July 1, 2018.
20 emerging photographers from 12 countries, representing different approaches to photography and showing their sensitivity, creativity and point of view through their unique images.
See how they perceive the contemporary world, what fascinates them, what frightens them, what they disagree with, what they have experienced, what they are struggling with, and what they dream about.
Meet the most talented emerging photographers who are worth watching!
Photographers:
Kirsten Leah Bitzer (US), Michele Crameri (CH), Ilaria Di Biagio (IT), Ewa Doroszenko (PL), Jean-Félix Fayolle (FR), Jordan Gale (US), Ilias Georgiadis (GR), Mirek Kaźmierczak (PL), Paweł Łączny (PL), Raj Lalwani(IN), Camille Lévêque (FR), Sergey Melnitchenko (UA), Filippo M. Nicoletti(IT), Valentyn Odnoviun (LT), Anna T. Pfeiffer (PL/IT), Natalia Poniatowska(PL/GB), Sergei Stroitelev (RU), Gihan Tubbeh (PE), Federico Vespignani(IT), and Adam Wilkoszarski (PL)
Jury:
Peter Bauza (DE/AR), Grzegorz Kosmala (PL), Isabella Van Marle (NL), Sarker Protick (BD), and Elviera Velghe (BE)
Media patronage:
doc! photo magazine
Partners:
FOMEI Polska, Foto-Grafika, Holy-Art, Vienna House (Andel's Lodz)
The exhibition is organised within the Fotofestiwal Lodz
Organiser: BLOW UP PRESS
(The text is taken from the organiser's page.)
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Information on the event you can find here: Art Vilnius 2018
The exhibition will be on the view June 7 - 10 at the LitExpo space, Vilnius, Lithuania
]]>During the Krakow Photomonth 2018 I participated in Portfolio Review and was selected for the first prize!
You can check the Docking Station events here:
http://www.dockingstation.today
Next step the Docking Station Artist Residency in Amsterdam, Netherlands!
]]>More information:
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Printed version is coming soon.
It has 352 pages and I encourage you to take a look at all great projects published in it!
(mine on pages 294-295 
)
Will wait for you there!
link to the facebook event
link to the event at the photo book publisher site (in Polish): Pix.House
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The project will be presented at the opening of the Kolga Tbilisi Photo 2018 and will be included in annual catalogue.
The winners of all the categories will be announced on the 4th of May in Tbilisi during the award ceremony and the opening of the photo week.
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The DEBUTS 2018 winners are (in alphabetical order):
- Kirsten Bitzer (USA)
- Michele Crameri (Switzerland)
- Ilaria Di Biagio (Italy)
- Ewa Doroszenko (Poland)
- Jean-Felix Fayolle (France)
- Jordan Gale (USA)
- Ilias Georgiadis (Greece)
- Mirek Kaźmierczak (Poland)
- Paweł Łączny (Poland)
- Raj Lalwani (India)
- Camille Leveque (France)
- Sergey Melnitchenko (Ukraine)
- Filippo Nicoletti (Italy)
- Valentyn Ondoviun (Lithuania)
- Anna Pfeiffer (Italy)
- Natalia Poniatowska (United Kingdom)
- Sergey Stroitelev (Russia)
- Gihan Tubbeh (Peru)
- Federico Vespignani (Italy)
- Adam Wilkoszarski (Poland)
The link to the actual announcement
Congratulations to all winners!
Regards,
Valentyn Odnoviun
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Find more information and pictures of the March 2018 edition of Doc! photo magazine with possibility to purchase it following by this link:
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Opening will take place at the Photon Gallery Wien, March 23rd at 19.00
Ziegelgasse 34, 1070 Vienna, Austria
My work will be presented by "Surveillance" project.
Exhibition will be shown from March 23rd until May 5th 2018
link to the exhibition information (in German):
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