From January 20, 2022

In the Photon gallery, we have been juxtaposing two artists in the “Artist Dialogue” section for several years. It is mainly dedicated to photographers of the younger and middle generation from the former Yugoslavia and the Central-East Europe region.

This year, the “dialogue” is placed in the additional context of two open calls for young photographers organized by Photon, the Different Worlds, which opened in its 9th edition in 2021 and the Concrete Dreams open call, on photographing industrial heritage. They are linked by a distinct conceptual approach to storytelling in photography, where they both create stories of places, individuals and problems of the contemporary world by documenting various motifs, fragments and also found or intentionally created objects. They will present two solo projects at Photon Gallery, each in its own space. They will present two independent projects, each in its own space of Photon Gallery.

Lin Gerkman (1995, Slovenia) graduated in Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where he is currently pursuing his Master’s degree. In addition to design, he works in the field of visual arts. His work is concerned with finding meaning in found objects and everyday situations. He explores current events and the remnants of contemporary history that shape them. In doing so, he employs a wide range of found objects and archival materials, either as a starting point for creating entirely original works or by combining them into new composite wholes. He is interested in understanding the individual’s relationship to the home, the impact of social transitions and the relationship between the political and the private.

First Snow (2015— 2021)
The point of departure is a disused quarry in a suburb of Ljubljana, which was formerly used to produce asphalt for a road construction company. The industrial complex consists of several sectors in different states of disuse. The area is thought to have been used for similar purposes for centuries, but the quarry began operating in a more modern form in the 1930s. From the early 1980s onwards, the site was the subject of a number of unsuccessful redevelopment plans, until the construction company succumbed to the depletion of assets by the management and a bad bank took ownership of the property. Most of the buildings of the industrial plant have since been demolished. Parts of the area have been overgrown or have become part of the public space, while the central part is still in use as a dumping ground for construction waste.

By collecting and studying found photographs, letters, minutes of meetings, online posts, professional publications, blueprints, material samples, construction elements, and other technical materials, personal objects and archival documents, and by creating my own photographs of the material traces in the landscape, Gerkman is exploring the social and environmental consequences of the transition from a socialist economic system with workers’ self-management to a market economy with strong tendencies of individual actors towards the rapid accumulation capital. He maps the period of political and economic transition through the imprints it leaves on the economy, on workers’ lives and on the environment.

Jakub Stanek (1988, Poland) studied photography at the Academy of Photography in Warsaw and philosophy at the University of Warsaw. He is a graduate of the Sputnik Mentoring Program organized by Photos collective. Stanek worked in Milan on documentary and commercial projects for several years. He was selected one of the 50 best young Polish photographers in “Debuts 2015”. In his work, he explores untold subjects and brings new perspectives to the audience. In documentary photography, he strives to engage in intimate dialogue with his protagonists. The principal focus of his work is the modern human and his experience.

In Anticipation of the Sun (2019)
In Anticipation of the Sun was triggered by a discussion with the artists’ 3-year-old son, when he had to explain to him why he had not gone for a walk for six days, when at the beginning of 2017, the air quality alert in Warsaw, was raised to the highest level “red”. Air pollution was above health standards and therefore harmful. At the same time, air quality in the city of Rybnik in Poland was worse than in China. The explanation to his son, took the form of a drawing in black pencil showing smog, and Stanek called it “In Anticipation of the Sun.”
This prompted him to do more research on what smog is so that he could explain it to his son. He realised smog is a silent killer, it invades all areas of our living environment and kills from the inside out. It severely pollutes both the air and the water; however, we, humans are the culprits, and that was something he had to teach his son as well. In Anticipation of the Sun series explores the imperceptible yet series threat of air pollution through symbolic imagery. The objects depicted recapitulate in material form Stanek’s investigation of air pollution and its less visible effects and consequences.

Video tour of the exhibition by Lin Gerkman and Jakub Stanek

Exhibition of Lin Gerkman and Jakub Stanek on RTV SLO (Slovene)
Photos from the exhibition