Normalisation is dialogue exhibition, in frames of Celje Fokus: Festival of Photography, at Likovni salon, Celje [28 June-31 August 2019]. It showcases works of two artists: Martin Kollar and Borut Krajnc.
The Normalisation exhibition showcases the works of two socially sensitive photographers, Martin Kollar (Bratislava) and Borut Krajnc (Ljubljana), who in their creative practices analyse topical social phenomena in chosen localities. Their photographs thus reflect on the normativeness of everyday trivialities in two completely different geographical and socio-political environments. Kollar’s series of photographs Field Trip (2011) is a result of an extensive visual exploration of the complexity of everyday life in the State of Israel, which is stereotypically associated predominantly with the politics of control and ethnic-religious tensions, while on the other hand Krajnc’s documentary images represent latent manifestations of resentment, fear and violence in the proverbially safe and stable country of Slovenia.
The notion of normality is a very subjective category, ever-changing in time and space. In any environment and situation, people adapt to change very quickly, regardless of how radical it might be, internalising it to the extent that it becomes a normal part of life. The perception of normality is a culture-specific phenomenon, one which people, especially in culturally and economically dominant parts of the world, tend to judge by their own ethical standards and ideological beliefs. If in the State of Israel, military and police presence, close surveillance and the ever-present thought of potential (re-)escalation of violence are common phenomena that may shock visitors from outside, they have become the norm for the local population. If in the countries that abandoned their socialist regimes thirty years ago, widespread corruption, a lack of the rule of law, fomented nationalism and economic stratification are perfectly familiar phenomena, such situation in countries such as Slovenia or Slovakia may be just as shocking for someone coming from a place known for its social discipline and political culture. That is as shocking as the notion on the amount of privately owned firearms in the USA, notion about social restrictions for women in Saudi Arabia, notion about the rate of violence and crime in Honduras, or notion about the fact that in Switzerland it is socially unacceptable to litter glass in the rubbish bins on Sundays.
Who, then, sets the norms? It is clearly public discourse, manifested in the law, mass culture, the education system and official policy. On the other hand, this is a matter of intimate experience and personal beliefs. The median is drawn according to each individual’s own measure. The two authors, Kollar and Krajnc, refrain from fitting their visual narratives with simplified discourses on the complex recent developments in various parts of the world, such as Israel and Slovenia. In doing so, they manage to avoid perpetuating stereotypes about the Middle East or Israel’s ethnically divided society as powder kegs and about Slovenia as a country that used to liken itself to Switzerland before being left depleted by the post-socialist transition. Kollar thus showcases the images of inconspicuous regularities such as urban landscape that resembles theatrical scenery or dead bird of prey on the autopsy table; with his photographs of empty billboards Krajnc on the other hand displays fragile reality in the period of conjuncture while with the images of emptied premises of Information Office of Council of Europe for Human Rights in Ljubljana which was just shut down by the authorities hints at the overrated self-image of the state that often violates human rights. In both cases, the focus is on the never-ending normalisation process, which keeps harbingering an imminent consolidation of the situation as the final destination while the latter keeps moving further and further away.
© Miha Colner, May 2019