“These photos are civil resistance against ineffective authorities.”
“Focused Out of Focus” is the name of Darko Bavoljak’s photo exhibition at the Greta gallery in Zagreb. The series of photographs was made at a formal state event earlier this year, and it features numerous senior state and military officials. But, the author intentionally shows them out of focus and blurry, as a series of lines and silhouettes. Nevertheless, the subjects can mostly be recognized. Prime Minister, President, Speaker of Parliament, ministers, generals – focus is on those who are usually in focus, but this time they are captured out of focus, reports Jutarnji List on Septemeber 4, 2018.
“This is how I see them, as uncatchable. You see them in front of you, but when you want to establish communication, they disappear,” said Bavoljak, who works in the field of photography, film, conceptual art and curator concepts. He has been involved with photography since the early 1980s.
As a university student, he published his photographs in Polet, Student List, Svijet and Start, and his photographs were also published in newspapers, journals, monographs, catalogs, books and professional publications. His works are part of private collections and collections of photographs of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka.
This series is a continuation of his work so far, in which he says he is experimenting with the media.
“These photographs also represent civil resistance to the authorities which are ineffective,” the 57-year-old photographer pointed out. To understand his photographs, he says, it is important to know the context, the socio-political situation marked by a high degree of distrust in institutions and democratic representatives who are often associated with corruption and economic crime.
Translated from Jutarnji List (reported by Petra Plivelić).
