Eva Šuštar, Maja Modrinjak, Đejmi Hadrović

Opening: 1 June at 7pm

Stolp Photo Gallery, Maribor

In 2016, Nova F (New Slovenian Photography) presents three, younger generation artists–Eva Šuštar, Maja Modrinjak and Đejmi Hadrović–proposing original premises for the treatment of a complex and manifold issue: the world of women. What they offer is a realistic and rather objective form of communication representing photography’s heterogeneous ability to become either a document of a time, or an experimental concept, or a medium to convey a certain message.

At one end of the scale is fantasy and nightmare, encapsulated in the absurd fear one feels in the presence of the smallest creatures on earth (Šuštar). At the other end of the scale is a woman’s body, free to simply be as is (Hadrobvić). And somewhere in between, there is the imaginary, yet almost physically palpable, extension of a woman, representing portable intimacy (Modrinjak).

Šuštar exhibits her graduation project entitled Among Us, a seemingly fantasy-like construct combining the real world (animals) with the imaginary (models of rooms). By means of an optical illusion, the photographs depict enlarged insects–animals that often invoke a feeling of fear. The resulting sense of unease created originates in the bipolarity of the images, juxtaposing the colourful, welcoming and meticulously thought-out interior design with the insects placed there.

In the series Must Haves Modrinjak deals with a self-evident aspect of a woman’s reality that generally remains concealed: offering a glimpse into a woman’s handbag. The idea is based on the key moment in Anna Karenina where the protagonist commits suicide, but just before jumping in front of a train, she flings her handbag onto the rails. Is a woman who is tired of her handbag also tired of her life? Modrinjak cites historian Anna Johnson in saying that a good bag becomes an intimate extension of the body–a small portable home.

In her work, in general, Hadrović deals with issues relating to women. On this occasion, in her series entitled Free the Nipple, she attempts to break down stereotypes about the female body by depicting the nude without lustful undertones. The series is a telling demonstration that the female body can be beautiful without conforming to the latest, largely unattainable, unrealistic, profit-oriented and media-driven body ideals.

(Petra Čeh)

The exhibition is open until 30 June 2016.

Gallery hours:
Tuesday-Friday: 10.00-14.00 / 15.00-18.00
Saturday: 10.00-14.00

Address: Židovska ulica 6, Maribor