Metamorphosis

One of the motifs running through the exhibition is the transformation of the landscape and the environment in which people live. Ukrainian photographer Vitalii Halanzha turns his gaze to the surface of the earth, where he finds remnants of rockets, shrapnel, and drone debris among the leaves and stones. His series Underfoot shows that even seemingly neutral soil can be fraught with danger and that landmines and other invisible hazards may lie hidden beneath our feet. Ksenia Ivanova explores a similar theme on the political map in her project Between the Trees, which focuses on the occupied regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Her photographs and video show barbed wire cutting through fields and yards and document how the absence of freedom and forced dependence are inscribed in people's everyday experiences.

Another level concerns memory and its variability. In his long-term project The Nature of Things, Hungarian photographer Balázs Turós follows the life of his grandmother with dementia and records the transformation of their relationship: moments of closeness, returns to childhood, and the slow fading of memory. The change here is not spectacular but quiet, taking place day by day. In her work I Saw a Tree Bearing Stones in the Place of Apples and Pears, Polish artist Emilia Martin turns to meteorites as objects that combine ordinary materiality with myths. Her photographs, artist's book, and sound installation show that transformation can also take place in the realm of perception: the stone becomes a bearer of narrative and a trigger for collective imagination.

The exhibition also presents works that explore the transformation of the medium of photography itself. In her exhibited works, Polish artist Anna Orłowska combines photography with textiles, metal, and found objects, shifting it into space. Photography can be as much a haptic object as a flat record. In her project All Things Laid Dormant, Italian artist Benedetta Casagrande combines photography with text and ceramics. The central work is the installation As I stay awake at night wondering if there really is a Dog, consisting of black-and-white photographs developed with plant-based developers. Casagrande thus emphasizes the material aspect of the medium while seeking new ways to work ecologically with photographic production.

However, this transformation is taking place not only in the landscape, memory, or medium of photography, but also in the rituals that shape our identity. German photographer Yana Wernicke documents the tradition of "wild men," during which men in certain regions of Germany dress up in costumes made of straw and leaves every year. The collective production of costumes requires care and cooperation and it raises questions about how these activities, which are not perceived as masculine by the majority of society, can intertwine. In her project We Want to Know the Truth (About the Balls), Ukrainian photographer Viktoriia Tymonova creates a fictional conspiracy story about energy balls. Photographs and archival materials become tools for creating an authorial narrative, reminding us that changeability also applies to the narratives we are willing to believe.

Together, the projects create an image of a world that is constantly changing: in a landscape ravaged by war, in a body marked by aging, in authorial fictions, or in community rituals. The exhibition seeks to emphasize that the photographic medium has the ability to convey these different experiences and transform them into a reflection of the problems of the contemporary world.

The selection of projects was prepared by curators Emese Mucsi (Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Budapest, Hungary), Raphaëlle Stopin (Centre Photographique Rouen Normandie, France), and Světlana Malina (Fotograf Zone, Czech Republic). The theme of the exhibition was developed in close collaboration with Nestan Nijaradze (artistic director and co-founder of the Tbilisi Photo Festival),  and Ángel Luis Gonzalez and Julia Gelezova (PhotoIreland / OVER Journal).

Co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, FUTURES is a platform to increase the capacity, mobility and visibility of it's selected artists and to bridge the gap between emerging and established artists.

METAMORPHOSIS
October 4–12, 2025

ARTISTS
Benedetta Casagrande, Vitalii Halanzha, Ksenia Ivanova, Emilia Martin, Anna Orłowska, Balázs Turós, Viktoriia Tymonova and Yana Wernicke

CURATOR
Světlana Malina

VENUE
Holešovice Market, Hall 13
Bubenské nábř. 306, 170 00, Prague 7 Holešovice

OPENING HOURS
10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.