Sasha Kurmaz – Awaiting the Apocalypse

#1 min Markéta Kinterová

5. 12. 2023

#45 HypertensionPhotobooksCollage

The massive stream of news that has to be dealt with on a daily basis is a combination of image and text. Just like the books of Ukrainian artist Sasha Kurmaz. In the anticipation of the apocalypse and, unfortunately, in the harsh reality inside of the state of war, this artist's book appears as a kind of statement against the media flux. 

The tragic headlines of the articles deal with the daily battles whose motive is survival, and not only of the human species. The author makes many references to the mass extinction of numerous species inhabiting planet Earth, whose diversity humanity has chosen to radically reduce by focusing on itself and maximising the satisfaction of its needs. Sasha Kurmaz selects and curates the headlines of newspaper articles in order to confirm or refute their messages by supplying his own photographs. As a result, it is essentially inconsequential what images accompany the news, as the images serve as mirrors of the reader's associations, all in the logical and uncomfortable anticipation of the apocalypse.

 

Sasha Kurmaz, Awaiting the Apocalypse Pale Horse, Kyiv: 2022

#45 HypertensionPhotobooksCollagePoliticalTruthWarAuthor's reviewHypertension

Markéta Kinterová

is the artistic director of Fotograf.zone and the editor-in-chief of the online magazine Fotograf. Her practice focuses on artistic research related to public space. She teaches at the Department of Photography at FAMU, Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

#45 Hypertension

Feelings of hypertension, a hyper-tense body, hypertension of the heart, hypertensive impulses, hypertensive images, hypertensive stimuli, hypertensive behavior, hypertensive individuals, hypertensive situations, hypertensive information flows, hypertensive media, a hypertensive flow of notifications. Is your blood pressure still the same? Is it rising? All fine? Are you feeling okay? Elevated blood pressure, or hypertension, is a metaphor for the question of the new virtual “I” and the changeability of a newly formed identity, the theme of this year’s Fotograf Festival, hypertension23, and also of this issue, which this time breaks away from the usual concept due to the connection to the festival, bringing a more concrete form, more akin to a catalogue.

Tourism

#2 min Markéta Kinterová

Tourism

#46 TourismEditorialHistory

It is interesting how much the world of photography is connected with tourism, in other words, how much the two domains may have in common. If we look at them through the lens of a mass phenomenon, they may even be similarly old. And it is in this perspective that a number of controversial questions arise in all their clarity. To what extent has tourism affected many of the coastlines and unique destinations that attract tourists? And to what extent does photography influence our perception of the places we visit?