Interview: Ana Dragić, author of Face the Reflection project
I wanted to make the people think about the "others", about those regular people who live in Belgrade and Priština. The goal of this project is not to persuade the artists and the audience that Serbs and Albanians are the same. It's not a problem for me if we reach the conclusion that we are completely different, but first let's really think about the things that separate us
By IVANA SPASOJEVIĆ
Offline exhibition "Face the Reflection" was opened on April 14th in the Cultural Center GRAD in Belgrade. The specific concept of this project includes 10 young photographers from Belgrade and Priština who posted online their photographs representing their reflections of reality without previously communicating with each other. Ten photographers - five from Belgrade, five from Priština - posted 100 photographs on 10 topics during 10 weeks.
After three months of non-verbal communication, photo-stories were presented in GRAD's galery where the authors met for the first time and exchanged their stories, impressions and reflections. Initially the plan was for the exhibition to last for only three days, but due to great interest of citizens the exhibition was re-opened on April 26.
On the basic idea of the offline exhibition, who is the "main culprit" for the project's name, differences between Belgrade and Priština, absence of politics and communication between photographers - Ana Dragić, the author of the project "Face the reflection" speaks forWAVE magazine.
Why "Face The Reflection" - who is the "main culprit" for the name?
- The name came to life when I was sitting with a friend and trying to think of a name for a website. I wanted to include the worlds "reflection" and ""facing", but all domains were used. Then her boyfriend exclaimed Face the Reflection and I liked it in more than one dimension. It relates to the interaction between the photographers and their reflection as well as to the similarity of the ways young people live in Belgrade and Priština.
On the first level, we have the artist - photographer who challenges all the other photographers in his/her city to answer, inspired by the motives from their immediate surroundings, with associative photographs which will reflect (abstractly and literally) the same motif or event. When they finally meet each other after three-month virtual interaction, they will finally face the reflection and the other artist when every photographer reveals which of the photographs are his or hers.
How did you get the idea to make an offline exhibition?
- Offline exhibition was created as a natural sequal of the online exhibition on www.facethereflection.com. My wish was that all those unique photo-stories come to life in gallery space as well, and for photographers from both cities to meet each other exactly at the place where their three-months virtual interaction is being tranferred to reality, into something tangible.
I created the website at the beginning of January and that's when the first photo-topic (first week) started. From that week on, all the photographers sent me their photo-replies to one topic. During the entire 10 weeks I uploaded the photographs they sent me but I saved their descriptions for the offline exhibition where people had the chance for the first time to see the background of the photographs and their authors.
What did you want to see as the final result, except for the photographs?
- I wanted to make the people think about the "others", about those regular people who live in Belgrade and Priština. The goal of this project is not to persuade the artists and the audience that Serbs and Albanians are the same. It's not a problem for me if we reach the conclusion that we are completely different, but first let's really think about the things that separate us.
Although those are subjective reflections of the photographs' authors, 10 photo-stories they created in an alternative way reflect the reality in these two cities. Exactly due to the fact those are spontaneus views of regular people and not a projection of reality offered by media, photographs are truthful because they show young people and the world they live in realistically.
How did communicating without names and any other background ease the communication among students photographers, that is how did it loose the burden?
- Maybe they felt freer because of that, although I believe that they would not have an issue in communication even if their identities were known from the beginning. By engaging in the project they have shown that they are not slaves to prejudice and that they are open for new experiences. Principle of anonymity may have had more influence on the audience, which was able to focus on the content, meaning artistic aspect, as they were unburdened by the background.
What are the differences between the views of Belgrade and Priština?
- The official views of politicians are different. Those of regular people, not so much.
Participants in the project have focused on student and cultural aspects of everyday life - which proved very possible, considering that the line between Belgrade and Priština is always considered through political relationship?
- Media, through selective informing of the public, sets up this relationship. They manipulate with interpretations of some "realities" that have little to do with regular people and their opinions, which feeds prejudices inherited through generations. Therefore we should not be surprised that the young photographers chose to focus on the subjects from everyday life, inspired by the motifs that surrounded them. Stories from the neighborhood, closest friends, partying, love, fear...
The description of the exhibition states that the main goal is to show "the actual state of things". What is it really?
- I first encountered young people from Kosovo while on a study trip in USA. As a New York Open Society Fund scholarship holder, I spent my 2009-10 academic year at an American university, where I had my first contact with someone from Priština. It was a sort of a paradox, which I had to cross the ocean to meet someone from a city only 6-hour drive away from Belgrade. After a year of friendship I came back to Serbia and visited Priština for the first time last summer. That experience was crucial for me to get involved with this project.
I felt like I was facing the reflection. Everything was different, and then again so much like Belgrade. First of all the life style of youth, their views of the world and visions of the future. Youth here and there have similar problems, fears, wishes and ambitions. Dissatisfaction and critical thinking, as auto-reflection.
Sub-subject of the exhibition is "Faces - Fyturat" - what is this about?
- Soon after the web page launched young photographers started contacting me wanting to get involved in the project. In order to keep the original concept I created a sub-subject "Faces - Fyturat" - composed of 50 photographs done by ten new young photographers from Belgrade and Priština (five from each city) during a period of five weeks. All the photographs show faces "en face", and the subjects were known only to the photographers. Goal of the sub-subject is, besides presenting the artists, is to emphasize the similarities of Belgrade and Priština and their inhabitants.
What do you think of the fact that the exhibition was reopened - at the request and due to the interest of the public?
- I am very glad that people were so interested in this story. It speaks not only of our success, but also of the change in the awareness if the youth, which makes me very happy. This was in a way the ultimate goal.
published: http://www.wavemagazine.net/arhiva/55/culture/interview-ana-dragic-face-the-reflection.htm
I wanted to make the people think about the "others", about those regular people who live in Belgrade and Priština. The goal of this project is not to persuade the artists and the audience that Serbs and Albanians are the same. It's not a problem for me if we reach the conclusion that we are completely different, but first let's really think about the things that separate us
By IVANA SPASOJEVIĆ
Offline exhibition "Face the Reflection" was opened on April 14th in the Cultural Center GRAD in Belgrade. The specific concept of this project includes 10 young photographers from Belgrade and Priština who posted online their photographs representing their reflections of reality without previously communicating with each other. Ten photographers - five from Belgrade, five from Priština - posted 100 photographs on 10 topics during 10 weeks.After three months of non-verbal communication, photo-stories were presented in GRAD's galery where the authors met for the first time and exchanged their stories, impressions and reflections. Initially the plan was for the exhibition to last for only three days, but due to great interest of citizens the exhibition was re-opened on April 26.
On the basic idea of the offline exhibition, who is the "main culprit" for the project's name, differences between Belgrade and Priština, absence of politics and communication between photographers - Ana Dragić, the author of the project "Face the reflection" speaks forWAVE magazine.
Why "Face The Reflection" - who is the "main culprit" for the name?
- The name came to life when I was sitting with a friend and trying to think of a name for a website. I wanted to include the worlds "reflection" and ""facing", but all domains were used. Then her boyfriend exclaimed Face the Reflection and I liked it in more than one dimension. It relates to the interaction between the photographers and their reflection as well as to the similarity of the ways young people live in Belgrade and Priština.
On the first level, we have the artist - photographer who challenges all the other photographers in his/her city to answer, inspired by the motives from their immediate surroundings, with associative photographs which will reflect (abstractly and literally) the same motif or event. When they finally meet each other after three-month virtual interaction, they will finally face the reflection and the other artist when every photographer reveals which of the photographs are his or hers.How did you get the idea to make an offline exhibition?
- Offline exhibition was created as a natural sequal of the online exhibition on www.facethereflection.com. My wish was that all those unique photo-stories come to life in gallery space as well, and for photographers from both cities to meet each other exactly at the place where their three-months virtual interaction is being tranferred to reality, into something tangible.
I created the website at the beginning of January and that's when the first photo-topic (first week) started. From that week on, all the photographers sent me their photo-replies to one topic. During the entire 10 weeks I uploaded the photographs they sent me but I saved their descriptions for the offline exhibition where people had the chance for the first time to see the background of the photographs and their authors.
What did you want to see as the final result, except for the photographs?
- I wanted to make the people think about the "others", about those regular people who live in Belgrade and Priština. The goal of this project is not to persuade the artists and the audience that Serbs and Albanians are the same. It's not a problem for me if we reach the conclusion that we are completely different, but first let's really think about the things that separate us.
Although those are subjective reflections of the photographs' authors, 10 photo-stories they created in an alternative way reflect the reality in these two cities. Exactly due to the fact those are spontaneus views of regular people and not a projection of reality offered by media, photographs are truthful because they show young people and the world they live in realistically.How did communicating without names and any other background ease the communication among students photographers, that is how did it loose the burden?
- Maybe they felt freer because of that, although I believe that they would not have an issue in communication even if their identities were known from the beginning. By engaging in the project they have shown that they are not slaves to prejudice and that they are open for new experiences. Principle of anonymity may have had more influence on the audience, which was able to focus on the content, meaning artistic aspect, as they were unburdened by the background.
What are the differences between the views of Belgrade and Priština?
- The official views of politicians are different. Those of regular people, not so much.
Participants in the project have focused on student and cultural aspects of everyday life - which proved very possible, considering that the line between Belgrade and Priština is always considered through political relationship?
- Media, through selective informing of the public, sets up this relationship. They manipulate with interpretations of some "realities" that have little to do with regular people and their opinions, which feeds prejudices inherited through generations. Therefore we should not be surprised that the young photographers chose to focus on the subjects from everyday life, inspired by the motifs that surrounded them. Stories from the neighborhood, closest friends, partying, love, fear...
The description of the exhibition states that the main goal is to show "the actual state of things". What is it really?
- I first encountered young people from Kosovo while on a study trip in USA. As a New York Open Society Fund scholarship holder, I spent my 2009-10 academic year at an American university, where I had my first contact with someone from Priština. It was a sort of a paradox, which I had to cross the ocean to meet someone from a city only 6-hour drive away from Belgrade. After a year of friendship I came back to Serbia and visited Priština for the first time last summer. That experience was crucial for me to get involved with this project.I felt like I was facing the reflection. Everything was different, and then again so much like Belgrade. First of all the life style of youth, their views of the world and visions of the future. Youth here and there have similar problems, fears, wishes and ambitions. Dissatisfaction and critical thinking, as auto-reflection.
Sub-subject of the exhibition is "Faces - Fyturat" - what is this about?
- Soon after the web page launched young photographers started contacting me wanting to get involved in the project. In order to keep the original concept I created a sub-subject "Faces - Fyturat" - composed of 50 photographs done by ten new young photographers from Belgrade and Priština (five from each city) during a period of five weeks. All the photographs show faces "en face", and the subjects were known only to the photographers. Goal of the sub-subject is, besides presenting the artists, is to emphasize the similarities of Belgrade and Priština and their inhabitants.
What do you think of the fact that the exhibition was reopened - at the request and due to the interest of the public?
- I am very glad that people were so interested in this story. It speaks not only of our success, but also of the change in the awareness if the youth, which makes me very happy. This was in a way the ultimate goal.
published: http://www.wavemagazine.net/arhiva/55/culture/interview-ana-dragic-face-the-reflection.htm
