čekati | waiting – hidden layers
The exhibition 'čekati | waiting - hidden layers' showcases a photo series of 26 bus stops on the periphery of Istria, Croatia. Ed Ruscha's conceptual methodology, and in particular his photographic series 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations', serve as an inspiration to examine the stops and their identity in the urban fabric. With this photographic concept, the observations are presented analytically and at the same time unfold a greater poetic meaning. What is life like in the decentralised periphery, in the surroundings of urban reality? In the sound of motorised individual traffic, in the middle of the silent, nostalgic-looking stops?
21 July 2022 10:00 - 9 September 2022 17:00
Periphery. Surrounding area. Outskirts of the city. Perceptions that evoke associations with life in rural regions. Sun-drenched stretches of endless green. Isolated from an urbanised world. Noticeable in the cut connections to local centres. Provincial groups or a self-chosen idyll. What is life like in the decentralised periphery, in the surroundings of urban reality? In the sound of motorised individual traffic, in the middle of the silent, nostalgic-looking stops?
The exhibition čekati | waiting - hidden layers in Gallery 3 of Het Nieuwe Instituut showcases moments on the periphery in Istria, Croatia. The photographic cartography approaches the different perceptions of places in both documentary and conceptual ways. The hidden layers between urban and rural spaces. The order of the 26 bus stops corresponds to the order of discovery. The location is chosen arbitrarily. It displays the invisible connections of rural regions of an urban society.
"It's the concept of taking something that's not subject matter and making it subject matter."
Ed Ruscha's conceptual methodology, and in particular his photographic series _Twentysix Gasoline Stations _serves as an inspiration to examine the bus stops and their identity in the urban fabric. With this photographic concept, the observations are presented analytically and at the same time unfold a greater poetic meaning. How does it feel to live in the surroundings of urban reality?
Bus stops in the periphery. Stereometric images of artifacts that are not just rudimentary shelters from rain and wind, but always a promise. A promise of connectivity to places beyond the rural. A promise of the punctuality and reliability of a superior system, which finds its essence in clocking of time and connecting of spaces. The evidence of the invisible connecting lines, the hidden layers, of the periphery and the urbanised landscape. Layers of the rural exodus, also noticed outside Croatia.
The challenge of the separation between rural and urban areas is a permanent part of an urban society. The periphery was always contradictory: spaces committed to tradition as well as experimental laboratories outside of the cultural layer. Surveillance zones as well as spaces of freedom.
The periphery is above all a field with distances. Rural areas serve as longing spaces for those who grew up in the city. Urban environments are escaping zones for part of the rural population. Today these layers overlap. The intermediate cities, which appear daily, dissolve unambiguity and create multiple spaces.
The periphery is shifting. The untouched landscape becomes the stage for tourism and movement. At the same time, the rural area converts to the meta production space of agriculture and to a storage room of our server farms and mega factories. An experimental field for the new digital. Bus stops in the periphery are always both. Promises of escapes and promises of new arrivals.
About Anna Kazianka and Falk Lennart Kremzow
Rotterdam and Vienna-based photographers, urbanists and visual designers Anna Kazianka and Falk Lennart Kremzow explore the intersections between photography, architecture and applied urbanism. Using conceptual and documentary methodology, the artist duo focuses on mobile society as well as urban and rural spaces from socially critical perspectives. Kazianka studied photography and audiovisual media as well as graphic and communication design in Vienna and Cluj Napoca. Kremzow studied architecture and urbanism in Vienna and Wuppertal. Together they showcase their projects in various exhibitions and publications.