Journal || December 2014

Blowup @ Angkor

Kapil Das


Keywords: Blindboys, Angkor, South Asian Photographers, street exhibition, community sourced work, BlowUps

Blindboys.org started out in 2008 as a platform for South Asian photographers to share new and emerging work. Soon it morphed into an outdoor intervention- free street exhibition, completely organized by photographers themselves in public spaces around South East Asia. Committed to the idea of printed photographs ‘BlowUps’ combined community sourced work and new easy to access digital printing, making it possible to have more than 50 photographers displaying at the same time across the city. In 2014, the 5-day event included various street exhibitions and projections.



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This community funded and motivated project brought a much needed release and connection with the public for the participating photographers. In 2010 it partnered with the Angkor Photography Festival in Cambodia (the oldest South Asian photography festival) to bring the idea to Cambodia. In 2014 it entered into it’s 4th year of partnership. This time along with bringing a large selection of contemporary photographer’s work to the streets, It also showcased various photo collectives from Europe and America.

 

Here are the Artists who featured at Blowup 2014

“La Ferme du bois” is a series of images is set in seemingly abandoned regions of the French countryside. The underlying sense of uneasiness is veiled behind the poetry and movement created by the use of light in these otherwise deserted and dark expanses, transforming them into dreamscapes.

Assunta Waldburg-Zeil

When I have to write about this, I suffer. I don’t exaggerate, I suffer. Being unable to confess, that is suffering – clarity fails and freedom is gulped by a monster that feeds on reclusive sensations, tortorous ideas, postponed anxiety. A knot is generated from the throat down to the chest and one is left twisted, like a cleaning rag with no blood left to wring.

Flavia Schuster →

“Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise”
It is a mission. Once it’s done, we’re all gonna be high fiving each other and manna is going to fall from the sky. And then we’ll fall over and die.

Jan Cieslikiewicz →

‘Across the River’ is a long-term project examining the tense and divided city of Mitrovica located in the northwest section of Kosovo. Once one of the richest cities in the former country of Yugoslavia, the struggling town is now split in two due to ethnic tensions, political upheaval and painful memories. While South Mitrovica claims to belong to the independent state of Kosovo, North Mitrovica still vows allegiance with Serbia.

Jasper Bastian →

I did not want to explore Coxbazar as the longest sea beach of the world, but I can definitely say I’ve found the largest diversity of people. 

It’s all happening on one long strip; teenage girls, family, corporate attires, elderly people, open and conservatives all gather in front of the blue and behave almost the same.

Kaisar Ahmed →

Project Katrina was named after the hurricane Katrina. It came out of uncertainty, chaos and very puzzled feelings towards myself. My belonging to my family, my roots, my life and the world here and now. It was a period of observing symbols, feelings, objects, people and relations that I brought together through the photos I took at that time, family photos and found pictures that have had an impact on me when I was little. Surprisingly all that material had been kept intact in my mothers house, as if waiting to be transformed.

Ilze Vanaga →

Life is so difficult because nobody can understand my feelings, I feel alone. My family is far away, and it is very difficult to go there to meet my parents. I came to Europe because it was my dream, but you can see our life in the Jungle, how we are living here. Birds, rivers, air, nobody can stop them to cross borders, why do we have so many problems?“ Qamar, 25 years old from Pakistan.

Merlin Nadj-Torma →

Live action role playing games show the world that has been created under the impact of mass culture. Such elements of pop culture as film, book and computer game characters become someone’s new identity. Everyday life is changed into a parallel world – the world of fantasy, where future, past and present are not separated. Everything that does not seem possible in the real world is possible in a game. Office man, student, director of a hospital, nurse, militarist, jewelery trader, teacher becomes a sorcerer, ork, zombie, troll, elf, moss man or goblin. Dreams and desire to be a hero are realized and enacted.

Reinis Hofmanis →

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