This year, the Photon open call for young curators in the field of contemporary original photography is replacing the otherwise annual open call for young photographers.
The curators who applied drew material for their proposals from the past six editions of the Different Worlds (2013—2018) open call. The winner, Mary Marinopoulou, will present her concept using the photographs of three authors, Jaka Bulc, Ajda Schmidt and Tina Umer, in the form of a video installation at Kino Šiška. In her exhibition concept, she will feature a new experience of the selected pieces, which together form a constructed world under the creative guidance of the curator. At the same time, a solo exhibition by the winner of the 2017 Different Worlds open call, photographer Aleksandra Nowysz, will be hosted at the Photon Gallery.
This year, the open call for young and not-yet-established curators in the field of contemporary photography, organized by the Photon Gallery, replaced the competition traditionally focused at young photographers. The competition was aimed at curators up to the age of 35 who work, live, or are internationally active in countries of the CEE region. The applicants drew on the material for their exhibition project proposal from the past six editions of the Different Worlds (2013–2018) photo competition, namely from the respective sets of about ten finalists of each edition. The winner of the competition is Mary Marinopoulou, who is exhibiting her winning proposal at Kino Šiška, which is also the co-producer of the exhibition.
Curatorial statement
The Different Worlds 2019 photo exhibition is the experience of a world constructed out of the fragments of the existing worlds, seen through the eyes and captured by the cameras of Ajda Schmidt, Tina Umer, and Jaka Bulc. What makes this photo exhibition ‘the experience of a different world’ is that our perception of it is the same as how we perceive our external world: we walk inside it, choose the angle we wish to view it from, become one with it and allow it to affect us the same way it allows us to affect it.
Unlike most photo exhibitions, the concern of Different Worlds 2019 does not lie in the best possible presentation of each photo, its perfect framing, and optimal lighting, but in how each photo acts as an integral component of this different world that we are building. This still world, absent of humans, actions and interactions, comes alive with time, as with each minute the natural light changes. What we realize during this experience is how our presence constantly reshapes this world, how each layer of it melts into the other and how, together with our bodies, they are all part of the ‘different world’.
Text: Mary Marinopoulou
Photo credit: Ajda Schmidt, It’s Been Years Since, 2013
Curator: Mary Marinopoulou
Free entry.
Organisation: Photon Gallery in cooperation with Kino Šiška.
