}

Josef Koudelka

January 16 - April 13, 2008

In this retrospective exhibition, Josef Koudelka revealed a side of himself, which we rarely see as it is usually covered up by the striking aesthetical quality of his photographs. Over time this apparent globetrotter has shown himself to be an engaged photographer who is now world-renowned. His key issue is, internally, always related to his native land, whether as a conscious message or out of a subconscious need. In the work, the local dimension meets the universal.

The retrospective took stock of all the stages of Koudelka’s work and its main thematic areas. The exhibition opened with a set of rare original prints from the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were followed by two parallel topics from the 1960s – Koudelka’s key series ‘Gypsies’, a fascinating encounter with this special ethnic group, and, the other, his work for respected Czech theatres, consisting of photographs with intricate structures. In Prague, Koudelka met important figures in the arts, such as the theatre directors Otomar Krejca and Jan Grossman and the writer-dramatists Josef Topol and Václav Havel, who helped to maintain the continuity of Czech culture when it was under heavy ideological pressure from the totalitarian state.

An important part of Koudelka’s oeuvre was the ‘Invasion’ series shoot in Prague, in August 1968. Shortly afterwards, in 1970, he emigrated, and the resultant feelings of being uprooted found expression in photographs which formed a series entitled ‘Exiles’. The two series, ‘Invasion’ and ‘Exiles’, can be understood as a whole, that related to the Czech situation, its causes and effects. With increasing frequency and gravity his work came to include both politics (as concern for public affairs) and his own personal themes of searching and finding, all within the problematic reality of the contemporary world. Shortly after leaving his homeland he began to work with Magnum Photos, and, in 1974, became the only Czech full member of this international agency.

After returning to Czechoslovakia for the first time since his departure, Koudelka photographed the devastation of the natural environment in the Ore Mountains of Bohemia, from 1990 to 1994. The photographs exhibited and published as ‘The Black Triangle’, tie into the set made with a panoramic camera in northern France, an area that has also been greatly affected by human intervention. These photographs became part of Koudelka’s large project called ‘Chaos’, which this retrospective concluded with. In the devastated landscape of today, Koudelka has found “tragic untamed beauty”, the search for which may be understood as Koudelka’s lifelong topic.

Exhibition Catalogue

Josef Koudelka

Josef Koudelka

In this retrospective exhibition, Josef Koudelka revealed a side of himself, which we rarely see as it is usually covered up by the striking aesthetical quality of his photographs. Over time this...

The Big Country

The Big Country

When the Royal Academy of Arts offered Stephen Chambers the opportunity to produce new work for a focused exhibition in the Weston Rooms of the Main Galleries, Chambers turned to print and the possibilities it offered.

Ideology

Ideology

Pera Museum’s  Cold Front from the Balkans exhibition curated by Ali Akay and Alenka Gregorič brings together contemporary artists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. 

Artist Nicola Lorini in Conversation

Artist Nicola Lorini in Conversation

Inspired by its Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection, Pera Museum presents a contemporary video installation titled For All the Time, for All the Sad Stones at the gallery that hosts the Collection. The installation by the artist Nicola Lorini takes its starting point from recent events, in particular the calculation of the hypothetical mass of the Internet and the weight lost by the model of the kilogram and its consequent redefinition, and traces a non-linear voyage through the Collection.