MAKE VOICES BE HEARD

Its motivation is to give space to voices that primarily come from the eastern part of the old continent, which, in our experience, tend to go unheard. This is true on many levels, whether within the framework of the European or global artistic practice or doubtlessly also in social scientific debates on the topic of decolonisation, which are so crucial for understanding not only the past but also the ramifications we continue to experience to date.

What is the non-Western view of events in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia? How can postcolonial critical thinking be projected onto this area, whether from an outside perspective or from the disproportionately more neglected internal perspective? 

Over the last ten years, postcolonial thinking has also spread through the lands of the old continent. Every country reacts differently, depending on its own history. We attempt to redefine our own history and the central narrative we have painstakingly cultivated for many decades. Just like oppression, exploitation, segregation, and fear.

In the end, it is only we (the authors of this text) who have the privilege of giving a voice and being heard. Let us therefore abandon the noble idea: give everyone a voice! Let us cease for a moment to think like the enlightened ones who have the right to make a selection. Let us stop and learn to listen to the voices of those we have not heard. 

The fourteenth annual Fotograf Festival seeks to lend a voice to exhibitors whose words should not get lost in the contemporary work of artists in an international context. The very name of the festival is an attempt to find a common language or, at least, an opportunity to listen. 

We believe that, from the perspective of revising history, the relatively recent experience of the former Eastern Bloc with a totalitarian regime that lasted nearly half a century is still vivid and necessary for understanding what could be mutually beneficial – conducting a deeper dialogue.

Markéta Kinterová, editor-in-chief
Světlana Malinová, festival art director