Christoph Grill, Cres, 2015
UGM Kabinet, Strossmayerjeva ulica 6
16 January – 13 February 2026
Opening : Friday, 16 January, at 7 PM
With the exhibition Depth of Field, the Graz-based photographer Christoph Grill is returning to Maribor after almost twenty years. The exhibition continues the collaboration with the Photon Gallery (Ljubljana/Maribor) and the artistic exchange with Graz (Austria), an important cultural center in the immediate vicinity of Maribor.
Christoph Grill’s photographic work is a result of a change of location. What can be seen in the world is incommensurable, a never-ending project. On his exploratory journeys, he cultivates the openness of an explorer, allowing himself to be surprised by what he finds without any specific guidelines. This is, on the one hand, a conceptual exploration of what already presents itself as an image, and, on the other, of what landscapes are charged with. The focus here is primarily on the traces of political ideologies in such disturbed landscapes, the consequences of the violent interventions with which they are visibly or invisibly contaminated, and where people continue to try to live.
“Depth of field” is a technical terminus, which evokes “image depth” and the many layers of landscapes, as the dominant motif of this exhibition. The exploration of “lush emptiness” and the gaze into the depths characterize Christoph Grill’s photographic work: vast landscapes, as the epitome of the brutality, vulnerability, and persistence of life.
Christoph Grill (b. 1965) studied biology/zoology at the University of Vienna, where he focused on archaeozoology – the field that studies animal remains in an archaeological context. Today he lives and works as a photographer and archaeozoologist in Graz. Since 1996, he has been travelling regularly to the former socialist countries, mainly the republics of the former Soviet Union. His artwork focuses on exploring these regions, documenting the transformations and consequences of political change. Between 1999 and 2010, he visited all 15 former Soviet republics, his aim being to document the post-perestroika period and the transformations in these countries. In exploring the peripheral regions of these countries, he sought out scenes that reflected past grandeur and the abandoned dreams of recent history. The photographs depict closed factories, abandoned military complexes and forgotten monuments, often devoid of human presence, which emphasises the sense of loneliness and abandonment. Yet Grill does not fall into stereotypes of Soviet austerity; instead, his works reveal human resilience and adaptability. For example, a shepherd in Armenia uses an abandoned bus as a pergola, and a hunter has made a home in the guardhouse of a former women’s penal camp on the Russian island of Sakhalin. The result of a multi-year project is the photography book Short Stalks at Distant Shores, published in 2012 by Hatje Cantz, which contains 106 photographs that offer an unvarnished look at everyday life in these regions. Grill has participated in numerous group exhibitions across Europe and has had solo exhibitions in countries such as the Czech Republic, Austria, France, Slovenia and Russia. His works are included in collections in Austria and France.
Curators: Dejan Sluga, Photon Gallery and Astrid Kury, Akademie Graz