Spomenik #3 (Kosmaj)
Photograph
2006 (photographed), 2014 (printed)
2006 (photographed), 2014 (printed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Jan Kempenaers is a Belgian photographer based in Antwerp and affiliated with the School of Fine Arts Ghent, where he earned a PhD in film and photography in 2012. His work is mainly concerned with landscape and new interpretations of the picturesque.
From 2007 to 2009 Kempenaers toured the Balkans photographing Spomeniks, monuments built in the former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and ’70s on the sites of World War II battles and concentration camps. Under Tito’s dictatorship, schoolchildren visited these abstract, concrete structures, which dot Balkan hilltops, contrasting sharply with the natural beauty of their surroundings. Today, many of them are abandoned. Some have been vandalised or spray-painted in outpourings of anger against the former regime; others have just been left to the elements, though their sturdy construction keeps them intact. Still others are maintained, but their significance remains contentious in the complex political lanscape of the former Yugoslavia. In Kempenaers’ photographs, the monuments appear otherworldly, as if dropped from outer space into a pristine landscape.
From 2007 to 2009 Kempenaers toured the Balkans photographing Spomeniks, monuments built in the former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and ’70s on the sites of World War II battles and concentration camps. Under Tito’s dictatorship, schoolchildren visited these abstract, concrete structures, which dot Balkan hilltops, contrasting sharply with the natural beauty of their surroundings. Today, many of them are abandoned. Some have been vandalised or spray-painted in outpourings of anger against the former regime; others have just been left to the elements, though their sturdy construction keeps them intact. Still others are maintained, but their significance remains contentious in the complex political lanscape of the former Yugoslavia. In Kempenaers’ photographs, the monuments appear otherworldly, as if dropped from outer space into a pristine landscape.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Titles |
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| Materials and techniques | photography |
| Brief description | Photograph by Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik #3 (Kosmaj), 2006, C-type print |
| Physical description | A colour photograph of a concrete monument . There are nine spike-like structures that are protruding from the base of the monument |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Limited edition |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Purchase funded by the Photographs Acquisition Group |
| Production | Edition 1 of 5 |
| Summary | Jan Kempenaers is a Belgian photographer based in Antwerp and affiliated with the School of Fine Arts Ghent, where he earned a PhD in film and photography in 2012. His work is mainly concerned with landscape and new interpretations of the picturesque. From 2007 to 2009 Kempenaers toured the Balkans photographing Spomeniks, monuments built in the former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and ’70s on the sites of World War II battles and concentration camps. Under Tito’s dictatorship, schoolchildren visited these abstract, concrete structures, which dot Balkan hilltops, contrasting sharply with the natural beauty of their surroundings. Today, many of them are abandoned. Some have been vandalised or spray-painted in outpourings of anger against the former regime; others have just been left to the elements, though their sturdy construction keeps them intact. Still others are maintained, but their significance remains contentious in the complex political lanscape of the former Yugoslavia. In Kempenaers’ photographs, the monuments appear otherworldly, as if dropped from outer space into a pristine landscape. |
| Associated objects |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.432-2015 |
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| Record created | May 7, 2015 |
| Record URL |
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