Forms of Representation
Interview with Céline Brunko on the occasion of the exhibition of the Prix Photoforum 2020.
Can you tell us briefly about the project currently exhibited at the Photoforum?
Forms of Representation is a long-term project in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. The narrative of the project is centred on the architect Ala Kirichenko, now over 80 years old, and the socialist-modernist stationary State Circus that she built in 1981, in Chisinau, Moldova. The project deals with the representation of the social-societal change caused by the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the resulting loss of identity and culture, but it also shows the new grown potential of a country by the example of the protagonist Ala Kirichenko. Moritz Holenstein and I analyse and recontextualize with the help of photography, film, text, interviews and documents this historically charged place.
What does it mean for you to exhibit this project? What would you like to convey to the audience?
The project has both a very personal and documentary character. On the one hand, I have always been preoccupied with the origin of my last name, which found its way from the ‘Eastern Bloc’ to Switzerland.
The project is very important to me. Among other things because I’ve been working on it with Moritz Holenstein since 2016 and we keep travelling back to Chisinau to expand it. An important part of it is travelling, moving to and through borders and countries. We have already travelled twice by car from Zurich to Chisinau and have been able to slowly perceive the topographical as well as cultural changes. Besides that, we made some friends in Chisinau. Urban planners, art students and the art organization Oberliht have supported and influenced us in the implementation of the project.
The project includes several levels. On the one hand, it is the story of Ala Kirichenko, on the other hand, it is a reappraisal of an example of recent architectural history of Chisinau. With the project I would like to bring this history closer and perhaps break through some clichéd views.
Your work is a collaboration with an architect, Moritz Holenstein. Did you know each other before this project? How did this collaboration come to be?
Moritz and I have known each other for a very long time and we are very connected beyond this project. The fact is, we are already in an 11-year relationship ;). Through this closeness, common interests and arguments about architectural space and the built environment have developed over the years. The interesting thing is that we both have different ways of looking at and approaching this project.
The first time I was in Chisinau, I was without Moritz, but I knew immediately that he would be interested in this historically charged place. In the fall of 2016, we went to Chisinau together for the first time to participate in the Public Space Days, organized by the art organization Oberliht in Chisinau. While there, we learned about the project The Empire Strikes Back?, which involved a group of intellectuals, urbanists, architects, activists, and other writers travelling through cities such as Yerevan, Tbilisi, Chisinau, Moscow, Minsk, and Kiev. The focus, in addition to local inventories, was an examination of the structural commonalities behind descriptive categories such as ‘post-Soviet society.’ Springerin Verlag has published a very interesting issue on this topic.
The participation in the Public Space Days gave us the impulse to work together on a project.
The project includes archival as well as newly photographed material. It is more than simply documentary, as you add your own narrative. Could you explain a bit more your process, and your own position as an artist in regard to this project?
The work includes a critical look at the research practice and considers what positions are taken. In addition to a representation, it is also an examination of us as a Swiss photographer and an architect in a country that has been conveyed to us only through stories and images. This comes across well in the video Ala Kirichenko — the clear classification of the spectacle and its spectators dissolves more and more.
As the title already suggests, it is about the possible forms of representation. Therefore, the fragmentary and abstracted exhibition display moves between documentation and fiction and includes, in addition to photography and video, sculptural installations. In a subtle way, with the focus on the circus building and its architect, a view of the situation in Moldova today is to be shown.
What are you currently working on? Can you tell us about your current or future projects?
In my latest artistic project, I focus on the industrial landscape of Switzerland and document with video and sound recordings a gravel pit in the Zurich Unterland. The focus is on the connection and dependencies of human interactions with the environment. A recurring element in my work is the built environment in which we live and its relation to resource and sustainability issues. Further, I focus on the production of concrete and its industry. One question is how our dependence on this material affects our social and political lives. This project will be presented in July 2021 in the context of the Werkstipendien exhibition of the city of Zürich in the Helmhaus Zürich.
The exhibition Prix Photoforum 2021 is presented at Photoforum Pasquart, Switzerland, from 3 March to 4 April 2021.
