Nemanja Knežević & Robert Marin ▪︎ The Real World is Out There
The third exhibition in the 2024 programme of Artget Gallery showcases the works of Nemanja Knežević and Robert Marin, in a dialogue. Both artists developed distinguished practices in which they reflect on their immediate surrounding by using photography as their main tool. Above all, Knežević and Marin are observers of the world that surrounds them, so they apply snapshot photography to document it the way it is. Their images may often seem objective and unaffected, almost naturalistic record of the world in which they aim to find topical and, at the same time, very ordinary issues.
The exhibition entitled The Real World is Out There thus showcases raw, rough and unembellished photographic material. Knežević and Marin are not exaggerating but rather simply documenting the world without a filter, a strange practice in the (modern) era of appearances. They subvert the usual features of dominant visual culture that requires beautification and stylisation of everything. Therefore, nowadays the reality may seem surreal. The photography is still, and even more than ever before, considered to be a medium that has the ability to make things look better than they actually do. On the contrary, the artists present raw images of ordinary life while they also try to convey subtle and profound narratives. Knežević builds his visual narrative on the premise that cultural landscape mirrors deeply rooted traditions and habits of a collective that shares cultural identities. In his series Guilt Trip, he analyses inability to cope with responsibility and the idea that there is an outside reason for every misfortune and disparity; in his words, guilt is a perverted version of responsibility that is often visible in cultural landscape. In his series What a Time to Be Alive Marin addresses issues of ever stronger commercialisation and gentrification of urban and rural areas alike. He documents margins of society that are not commonly represented in public discourse, in order to emphasise discrepancy between official narratives and real life. One’s homeland may seem like an idyllic place under beautiful mountains and pristine rivers but, unlike in the tourist marketing campaigns and popular social media feeds, it is also a place where real people live and where real life occurs.
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STATEMENT BY THE ART DIRECTOR OF THE ARTGET GALLERY IN 2024
Since its invention, photography has been a medium of various purposes and contexts. It can be perceived as an entirely objective medium, a proof that something really happened, and ultimate reflection of reality. At the same time, photography possesses almost magical power to embellish reality; it has the ability to make people look better than (they think) they really are. The same applies to objects, be it commercial products or ritualistic artefacts, that often seem more convincing and attractive on a photograph. There is a huge discrepancy between reality and mediated image of reality.
Throughout the history of photography both sides of the medium have coexisted. Early photography artists commonly followed the convention of concealing and idealising the reality. Pictorialists at the turn of 19th and 20th century avoided presenting rapidly transforming society in order to achieve visual effects that would not disturb the bourgeois order. Instead of documenting changing cultural landscape that has become increasingly industrialised and urbanised, they turned their cameras to pristine natural and pastoral motifs. On the other hand, some photographers refused stylisation in favour of verism and rather focused on recording reality the way it was. Pictures of social injustice and severe human suffering, caused by economic inequality in the industrial age, were powerful and effective statements, that sometimes even helped to improve situation of the affected.
There never was a time when the idealised mediated image would not be required. Even in the modern day and age, when people live relatively well, longer and safer, in comparison to centuries before, the mainstream photography still, or even more so than ever, strive for the stylisation and idealisation. Visual culture has an enormous impact on the way people perceive the world. The majority of global population is submitted to simulacrum of reality in which an image usually serves a particular purpose; in the world of appearances, dominated by commercial features and ideological propaganda, pictures of real people and the real world are evermore rare and unattractive.
Nemanja Knežević and Robert Marin are photographers who developed their distinguished practices in which they reflect on their immediate surroundings. Above all, they are observers of the world that surrounds them, and they apply snapshot photography to document it the way it is. Their images may often seem objective and unaffected, almost naturalistic record of the world in which they aim to find topical and ordinary issues. And what they see is overwhelming. Not only that they both lived in the areas that were devastated through the period of so-called transition to democracy, where basic ethics and values changed dramatically, they as well witnessed global libertarian turn that praises individualism and social Darwinism. For this reason, their sensibility is oriented towards marginalised contexts that exist outside dominant media discourses and public view.
The exhibition entitled The Real World is Out There thus showcases raw, rough and unembellished photographic material. Even though Knežević and Marin may be disillusioned with general state of affairs, and their imagery points out imbalances and paradoxes in societies, they retained (self)irony and humour in their works. Their practices are often related to genre of street photography which, in the past thirty years, became a genuine and authentic form of photographic expression in the Balkans and East Europe where photographers reflected on the absurdity of political discourses and hopelessness of socioeconomic situation. When people do not believe in the possibility of change, they often resort to irony, cynicism and nihilism. Like many other practitioners Knežević and Marin as well often address serious issues with a great sense of humour and immediacy.
Knežević builds his visual narrative on the premise that cultural landscape mirrors deeply rooted traditions and habits of a collective that shares cultural identities. In his ongoing series Guilt Trip, he analyses inability to cope with responsibility and the idea that there is an outside reason for every misfortune and disparity. For him, guilt is a perverted version of responsibility, a psychological infection of chronic powerlessness, that is often visible in cultural landscape. His photographs thus showcase his own intimate idea of dysfunctional notions of guilt, the sensation that prevents societies from evolving and changing. Even though his motifs are not geographically limited he focuses on his known surroundings.
In his photographs, part of ongoing series What a Time to Be Alive, Marin addresses issues of ever stronger commercialisation and gentrification of urban and rural areas alike. He documents margins of society that are not commonly represented in public discourse, in order to emphasise discrepancy between official narratives and real life. His images are made in the areas affected by the traumatic change of social, cultural and economic model that brought to ever bigger inequality and decay of public services while the official imagery is increasingly controlled, embellished and stylised. One’s homeland may seem like an idyllic place under beautiful mountains and pristine rivers but it is, unlike in the tourist marketing campaigns and popular social media feeds, also a place where real people live and where real life occurs.
Miha Colner
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Nemanja Knežević (1985) is a photographer and visual artist. He graduated from film studies at SAE Institute in Belgrade. He has worked as photographer for more than fifteen years; primarily he is commercial photographer while at the same time he actively works as an artist on themes that intrigue him. In his creative practice he is interested in casual and ephemeral, as well as in collaborative processes in which he works with other artists. He is also one of the founding members of the Belgrade Raw photo collective, founded in 2009. Since then, the collective widely exhibited, conducted educational workshops and took part in the activities that exceed the boundaries of photographic image, locally and internationally. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia.
Robert Marin (1984) is a photographer and journalist who is interested in the everyday reality of his immediate surroundings. He studied history and cultural studies at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. Since 2014, he is part of the creative tandem Najlepše mesto na svetu (The Most Beautiful City in the World) where he, together with Matjaž Rušt, photographs change in the social fabric of the city of Ljubljana. In his individual practice he as well documents everyday realities and banalities. His photographs are included in the art collection of KGLU – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška, Slovenj Gradec. He lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
@dvatidevetnula
@najlepsemestonasvetu
The exhibition is supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Belgrade.
