Come today, 14th April 2018 at 17h, to the opening of photography exhibition “I am Rohingya” by Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, gallery Božidarac, Radoslava Grujića 3

According to the United Nation’s declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to live”. Rohingyas are Indo-Aryan- speaking people, who have been living in the Rakhine State of Myanmar for centuries. Myanmar Government never officially recognized these people, as an ethnic minority group among the other major eight national indigenous races, which I believe, is a complete violation of human rights. They live there as stateless people who are deprived of their rights, and are always under pressure of various levels of social discrimination and violation by other major religious belief holders. One million of Rohingya refugees were estimated to have gradually entered into Bangladesh by boat, on bare foot and by other means of transportation from many distant places of Myanmar, risking their lives and belongings. In every case, humanity comes first. We should not believe in the existence of borders and partitions among nationalities or races. We all are humans, and are here on earth for a certain period. It is always better to think broader and about the equality and justice for all. These inner feelings always can force us all become a good human being who cares for each other.

I am Rohingya

The Rohingya is a minor Muslim ethnic group who has been living in Myanmar for centuries. However, due to the racism and many other socio-political issues accelerated from the majority in Myanmar, they became a victim to a categorization of themselves as Bengali descendents, the recent migration of whom began on August 2017, from Myanmar to Bangladesh. These people are deprived of their ethnic rights by their own country, which includes non-enlistment with other 135 official ethnic groups, as Myanmar government has regarded them as stateless refugees from Bangladesh [1]. Over one million Rohingyas used to live in Myanmar, and they are the most persecuted people in the world and their current exodus has made more vulnerable.

It was not an easy condition at all for a conscious photographer to listen to the stories, and taking the photographs to produce the best aesthetical piece of art. It was more like documenting the horror of truth. I went to the local hospitals for several times to see the victims who entered into Bangladesh with injuries brought by the Myanmar Armies during the time they were fleeing. Or perhaps, the army just wanted to loot the belongings of these people. The Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, might not have pondered to go against the elite Army Generals for the sake of material happiness of life, but there are great chances reserved for the owner and creator of everything and this universe, and He can bring justice for once and for all, before it is too late for innocent human beings.

Written by Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Today, 13th April 2018 at 19h, we are inviting all street photography lovers to Olga Titova’s exhibition “Larger than life”, opening at Zoom Art Cafe, Dobračina 76

“Street photography is a complicated, interesting and unpredictable art. Every time I go out with completely no idea of what surprises the streets had prepared for me I and what am to see today.

Sometimes you can face scenes like from a theater of the absurd and people really amaze me. Or the usual city landscape suddenly turns in a fantastic combination of forms, lights and color.

In a split second the puzzle of circumstances put together, and you are only to press the button, and the next minute it falls apart and never happens again. These photos are imprints of that unique moments, and maybe they seem a little more alive and vivid than real life can be. But it is a point where two realities intersect – a sudden street scene and the inner state of the photographer, and this mix is providing the most amusing and unpredictable result.”

Olga Titova

At the exibition opening Olga will present her new photo book “Pride” – the winner of three latest photobooks’ contests:

– Fuam Dummy Book Awards (Istanbul), 2017
– ViennaPhotoBookAward, 2017
– PhotoBookFest (Moscow), 2017.

On Friday, 13th April 2018 at 18h, in the presence of the artist and curator of the exhibition, we are inviting you to the opening of the exhibition of photographs “Solo un ricordo” by Matteo Girola, Italian Institute for Culture in Belgrade, Kneza Miloša 56

Matteo Girola explores the mutation of the photo in time with saturated images and shaped social networks. During his first exhibition in Belgrade, the artist invites the audience to travel through time and space, from the creation of photography to its contemporary use, revealing the social and anthropological revolution caused by this medium. With minimalistic interventions and poetic playfulness unique to Girola, the exhibition offers “Solo un ricordo” of the time when the photo was still an unexplored territory and when surrealism did not take over reality.

Curator of the exhibition is Julia Rajačić.

From today, 12th april 2018, you can send a request (by email to info@belgradephotomonth.org) to organize a Group Visit to “Ceux du Monde”, photography exhibition by Yann Laubscher, in Swiss Ambassador Residence, Andre Nikolica 30, Senjak, Belgrade

In 2010, the photographer Yann Laubscher goes on his first trip to Siberia in the Republic of Tuva (Russia). He has since then returned to the wilderness of this country each year, in regions such as Siberia, Kamchatka and the Urals. Associating portraits, landscapes and objects, without distinct chronological nor geographical markers, his previous work The Call is an immersion into the footsteps of a rough and precarious life, full of free dignity.

On his journey, he discovered an isolated valley crossed by a river, the Ka-Khem (Little Yenisei River), where approximately 1000 people live out of this world. During eight months each year, the valley is cut off by the snow, the river being frozen over. Six years after this first expedition, the photographer decided to return, this time in the heart of winter, walking 100 kilometers back up the frozen river to the last family living the most upstream, and therefore the most isolated.

After several endless days of walking, fighting cold bites and the pitfalls of the Ka-Khem, the photographer and his interpreter discovered, nestled in the heart of the valley, anchorites living in hermitage in simple shacks. In their daily life, where praying, reading, gardening, caring for livestock, cultivating, hunting and fishing are mingled, a kind of exclusive asceticism is established. Living in hermitage means salvation.

The past of these Orthodox Old Believer families, settled in this valley for over 100 years, is part of a flight linked to a schism of the Church in 1653. Opposing the Tsar, rejecting all powers, and denying government laws, official papers, food and customs of the “century” led them into hiding away in the most inaccessible nooks of the taiga and living in total rupture with the world. By being kept free from the latter – full of temptations, sins and contempt for God – they save their bodies and souls. Their daily practices, their clothing, their food, their habits, their language, their icons, their rites, their old manuscript books and their legends : all is preserved in this valley of past times, thanks to a certain distance and inaccessibility, despite the exchanging with travelers of basic food and petrol against fish and fur.

This face-to-face with nature, both rich and ruthless, is supported by a force of faith, almost frantic, helping them to survive and endure everything fate brings their way. Furthermore, the violent events of the past century reinforce these anchorites in their vision of the sinful world.

Yann Laubscher adopts the role of the involved observer, located both inside and outside of the subject. For him, pointing his lens at them would be an act of betrayal. A temptation to which he did not yield, photography being fundamentally contrary to the spirit of confidentiality of forest hiding. Ka-Khem, taiga, snow, ice and izbas compose the photographs designed to recreate the photographer’s journey through a hostile environment, with a frozen river as a narrative thread.

The photographs seized are suspended in an ambiguity related to the increasing trade with the world. They appear in the same movement present and absent in the world, physically strained by a resistant and almost animal beauty of their way of life, but intrinsically worked by a form of renunciation, abandonment. Without seeking simplification or obeying any logic, the photographer structures a language rather than a style. Wide shot or close-up vision: each of his images is ruled above all by its own point of equilibrium.

With the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Belgrade

Today, 12th april 2018 at 20h, students’ exhibition opening, from the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, in Dorćol Platz, Dobračina 59b

Students of the Department of Photography and Camera of the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, from the first to the fourth year of studies, present their collections, art projects, as well as examinations, from 12th to 26th April 2018.

The exhibition is opened by students, authors of exhibited works.

The exhibition includes photographic and video works from the domain of documentary, advertising, feature and artistic forms. Young photographers present a wide range of their artistic interests: from analogue documentary photography, studio exercises, collage, installations, video and conceptual arts, fashion and promotional photography to the exploration of intimate personal themes, social environment, as well as interest in contemporary trends in photographic media and video art.

For music, Mafrose will be in charge.

Tonight, 12th april 2018 at 20h, opening of exhibition “Vedute mundi” from German photographer Hans Georg Esch, Atelje blanc / blank, Dunavska 86, II ulaz, IV sprat

The title of the exhibition was inspired by a series of etchings vedute di Roma (views of Rome) by Giovanni Battista Piranzeni. Contemporary German photographer Hans Georg Esch – HEGsch has been fascinated by landscapes for years. Photographs included in this exhibition combine the landscape and veduta, thus reflecting the character of the city. The photographs from „Cityscape” (city landscape) series are more than 4 metres in size, demanding from their viewers to distance themselves for at least few metres, literally speaking. Yet, if they want to discern all details, they need to get much closer, so close that they are no longer able to distinguish between left and right side of a viewed piece. Esch’s photographs are characterised by careful and wholesome composition, i.e. extraordinary combination of wide-angle and central perspective. That is exactly what makes them vedute (views), the function of which at the time was identical to the function of Instagram and other social networks that are primarily based on photography; they show us the places we have not visited or have not as yet encountered from the same perspective as the author. Esch is, therefore, showing us the images of the world – hence the title Vedute mundi. He confidently uses everything he has learned as an architectural photographer, putting his skills into the service of our knowledge of the world.

Rolf Sachsse

By Goethe-Institut Belgrad with the support of ingenhoven architects , Leica Camera & Carpet Concept

Come tonight, 11th april 2018 at 19h, to gallery Stara Kapetanija, Kej oslobođenja 8, Zemun, to the opening of Branislav Goluba photo exhibition “Venice Carnival”.

An exhibition of artistic photography Venice – Carnival presents a segment of a wider project in the field of street photography by author Branislav Golub (Candidate Photo Master of Photo Association of Serbia) wanted to bring the audience a very descriptive carnival atmosphere from a different angle. A specific author’s approach to the theme is incorporated in the compositional scheme, which emphasizes the parallel and the relation of the “two worlds”; one timeless, masked one that seeks to return the observer through time and another real, which is a common imagination, building a fairy-tale street atmosphere on the edge of fantasy.

Also, within a very compact thematic unit, photographs highlighting the individuality and character of the actors separated from the crowd are also highlighted. Their intimate retreat in the streets of Venice takes a significant place within the festival atmosphere by introducing observers into carnival through a different and specific prism of observation.

The characteristic and very recognizable photographic style of the author applied within this thematic whole, emphasizes the descriptive value of the street ambience within which the carnival itself takes place. The author allows the viewer to let go of his imagination and build his own perception of carnival and, at least in his mind, cast off the untamed, interwoven streets of Venice and be a part of the carnival atmosphere that returns through time, creating a completely specific visual amusement.

Tonight 5th april 2018, one exhibition in two galleries, “The Art of Seeing” photographies by Milena Arsenić, Boško Đorđević, Teodora Ivkov, Marijana Janković, Milutin Marković, Maja Medić, Matej Milenković, Milovan Milenković, Anđela Petrovski, Emilija Popović, Ivana Tešić i Jelena Žigić, selected by Klavdij Sluban. Opening at 18h, French Institute, Knez Mihailova 31, and then at 19h, Artget Gallery, Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Trg republike 5/I.

“So much subjectivity gives rise to a multiple visual expression which encompasses the diverse fields of contemporary photography. Diversity reveals the many faces, not to say the complexity of today’s Serbia. It’s about the view of young photographers who take care of the world they live in.”
– Klavdij Sluban

Tonight 4th april 2018 at 19h, opening of Lukas Birk photography exhibition “Travelogue Sammlung”, at TransformArt gallery, Svetog Save 8

In Travelogue Sammlung, storyteller, collector and conservator Lukas Birk draws photographic material out of his family albums and journeys to repurpose old books of his personal collection. On the pages of these out-dated publications, he inserts images of his family history and trajectory as an artist to generate displaced contents and readings.

Based on visual recollections of journeys that took place from Austria via the Balkans to the Middle East and back to Europe, Birk’s storyline revisits notions and cliches such as the trappings of exoticism, the “Other” as a Western construct, folklore and the status of the artist.

By throwing pictures back to the arena of history and by mixing heterogeneous materials, it reinvents the content and nature of pre-existent photographic collections, triggering personal and collective memory in manifold ways.

From vernacular to fine art photography, and from the intimacy of the family album to ruthless public exposure, the product of this operation is a novel archival palimpsest of prints, books and objects, real and imaginary at heart, that. This remix emerges as a fascinating hybrid narrative that unwraps the lifetime of three generations of men and the ultimate destiny of a collection.

In collaboration with Austrian Kulturforum Belgrad and Austrian Arts Council.

Today, 4th april 2018 at 19h, opening of Petar Jončić photography exhibition, Zemun municipality gallery, Kosovska 9

On 26 black and white photographs, most of which were made with an analog camera, Petar Jončić created a unique group of people who communicate, listens what others say and thus create their own community, a small collection of different characters, all of which have their own story.
 
Portraits were shot all over Serbia, in various cities and villages, and on the wall of the gallery will be connected in a long series in order to create an illusion of conversation and socializing of those who have never met.
 
Petar Jončić is a journalist at TV Studio B and a film critic of Radio Belgrade 3. He deals with photography as an amateur from the end of the eighties. He participated in numerous jurying domestic and international photo exhibitions. In the last two years he actively deals with street photography and captures portraits of people who find themselves in the immediate vicinity, most often during journalistic reporting or during the realization of his TV reports.
 
For his work he received numerous awards in the field of cinema.