Q&A with Sonia Voss
Sonia Voss - Voices curator
As part of the new Voices sector, curator Sonia Voss answers our questions and presents her project entitled Four Walls, which will be exhibited at Paris Photo from November 7 to 10, 2024, on the first floor of the Grand Palais.
Gabriele Stötzer, Inszenierung Jesus (Enactment of Jesus), 1985 - Courtesy Monopol
You define the bedroom as “a space of projection, creation, and expression” employed by the artists in your selection for Voices. How does this image connect the works that you present?
In the coercive system of the Soviet occupation, to which the various countries represented on the stand were subjected, and because of the censorship that was exercised, creation often began in the artists' own homes. In this way, the intimate space - and a fortiori the bedroom - became for many a place to be re-examined, re-explored, even re-enchanted or transformed. The bedroom has sometimes been a laboratory, sometimes a personal theater, sometimes an observatory. This is particularly true of Libuše Jarcovjáková, Violeta Bubelytė, Gabriele Stötzer... But this parameter is far from sufficient to decipher the entire creative output of the period. The countryside - less guarded than the cities - also allowed for the most unbridled experimentation, as we can see with Zygmunt Rytka or Rimaldas Vikšraitis. The political reality of each country also differed, and with it the spectrum of possibilities offered to artists: some were able to travel, to invest the public space... Beyond the initial theme of the bedroom, the stand ultimately enables a broader and more faithful approach to the complexities of this period.
You've chosen to work with galleries from the former Eastern bloc, a territory you're well accustomed to researching. Why is it relevant to show these art scenes today?
The personal and artistic strategies that emerged, despite the constraints and repressions of the time, are moving and quite galvanizing. These artists demonstrated lucidity and courage. But perhaps above all, it was the sovereignty of their bodies, their imagination and their humor that were their salvation. The means used are often simple and powerful, and the resulting works are incisive and humorous - or marked by a desire for transfiguration and transformation. Of course, beyond a shared context, the strength of these idiosyncratic bodies of work lies in the individual choices and paths taken by each and every one. This is fascinating: how an artist's personality and language unfold and distinguish themselves within a shared reality to which they necessarily react.
What's more, the exploration of this now historic period is far from over: much remains to be discovered - even if important initiatives are to be welcomed, such as the monograph on Rytka to be published by Spector Books, the films on Libuše Jarcovjáková and the Kharkiv school, soon to be seen on Arte... These works and their interrelationships, made possible by the stand, open the way to new readings: multiple, referential and nuanced. It goes without saying, moreover, that the spirit of resistance and the power of the imagination are still essential counterpowers today, particularly in those countries where current European events are confronting their old demons. The photographers of the Kharkiv school illustrate this resistance with exemplary continuity and constantly renewed ideas and forms.
The Lithuanian scene in particular, with a few exceptions, is very much unknown to the public. What will the public discover at Paris Photo, in the Voices sector, but also in the collections of the BnF and the Centre Pompidou which will be shown at the fair this year?
Lithuanian photography - particularly from the 1960s to the 1990s - is extremely rich. It was time to introduce it to the public at Paris Photo. I've been interested in it for a number of years, and it never ceases to surprise me with its singularities: it's a photography marked both by a powerful relationship to humanity and the earth, and by a form of lucidity and despair, re-enchanted by poetry and even mysticism... These particularities are linked to the history of the country, which is largely rural and sylvan, having experienced various traumatic occupations, but carried by a spirit of resistance, a tradition of poetry and a pantheistic culture rooted for millennia.
The Lithuanian Season in France provides us with an excellent opportunity to present a panorama of Lithuanian photography from these decades at the next Paris Photo. The public will be able to discover many artists who have never or rarely been presented in France, both in the Voices sector at Kaunas Gallery and on the mezzanine floor of the Grand Palais. An exhibition there will bring together prints from the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and others identified as part of an acquisition project by the Centre Pompidou. Other works will come from the Union of Lithuanian Photographers - an organization whose roots go back more than 50 years; they will be complemented by a number of contemporary positions, testifying to the vitality of the current Lithuanian scene and the way in which it is rooted in the work of previous generations.
Aurora Király, VIEWFINDER photography, 2014-2016 - Courtesy of Anca Poterasu
Exhibited galleries
Alexandra de Viveiros, Paris – Group Show - Vladyslav Krasnoshchok | Evgeniy Pavlov | Roman Pyatkovka | Vladyslav Krasnoshchok
Anca Poterasu, Bucarest – Group Show - Aurora Király | kinema ikon (collective)
Fotograf Contemporary, Prague* – Duo Show - Libuše Jarcovjáková | Markéta Othová
Kaunas Photography, Kaunas* – Group Show - Violeta Bubelytė | Vitas Luckus | Virgilijus Šonta | Antanas Sutkus | Domicelė Tarabildienė | Rimaldas Vikšraitis
Monopol, Varsovie* – Duo Show - Zygmunt Rytka | Gabriele Stötzer
Portrait de Sonia Voss - Credits: Maurice Weiss
Biography
Sonia Voss - Independant curator
“Whether familiar or transitory, empty or filled, a place of inner exile or reassuring intimacy: rooms are often invested with intensity by artists, particularly in contexts of political oppression where they constitute an ultimate terrain of freedom. They invite introspection, immobile travel and experimentation; they can be transformed into a theater or an observatory; and, finally, they can function as a metaphor for photography itself. The “Four Walls” space is dedicated to the room as a place of projection, expression and creation.
Sonia Voss is an author and curator. Her exploration of East German photography led her to curate the exhibition “Restless bodies: East German Photography 1980-1989” (Rencontres d'Arles, 2019; National Gallery of Art, Vilnius 2022) and to focus on various emerging photographic scenes behind the Iron Curtain, notably in Lithuania in the 1970s and 1980s. She curated the Prix Louis Roederer Discovery Award in 2021 at Rencontres d'Arles. She also supports several artists in their artistic projects and exhibitions.
Voices sector
Paris Photo is launching the Voices sector this year, inviting three curators to develop a proposal around contemporary themes to (re)emerge an artistic scene or medium practice.This first edition of Voices is presented by the curators Sonia Voss, Azu Nwagbogu, and Elena Navarro.