Today, Mamma opened the exhibition in the "Biennale 2012" - South African photographer Michael Subotski. The last eight years, he removes the notorious prison in South Africa

Mamma, March 21 - April 15, 2012
st. Ostozhenka 16

Today at Mamma in the 9 th International Month of Photography in Moscow "Biennale 2012" presents an exhibition of South African photographer Michael Subotski.

Subotski was born in Cape Town in 1981, currently works in Johannesburg. The author combines social documentation directly to the study of nature photography as an artistic technique. He is interested in narrative structure and representation, as well as the relationship between social and formal narrative poetics of the creation of images. The last eight years, he removes the notorious prison in South Africa, the little town of Beaufort West and the Pont-City - the skyscraper in Johannesburg.

MICHAEL SUBOTSKI audience, Shaw Beaufort West Courtesy of: Michael Subotski and Goodman Gallery, South Africa Source: mamm-mdf.ru ​​

MICHAEL SUBOTSKI Contestants in costumes of contestants on the show Beaufort West Submitted by: Michael Subotski and Goodman Gallery, South Africa Source: mamm-mdf . ru

Subotski works were exhibited in major galleries and museums, his images are stored in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Johannesburg Art Gallery. Among recent awards and grants Subotski - prize "Opening" festival "Photographic meeting in Arles" (2011), Oscar award Barnaka (2009), Grant W. Eugene Smith Fund (2008), KLM Paul Hufa Prize (2007).

«Beaufort West" - the only book to date Subotski, published by Chris Boot in 2008 became the basis of the exhibition "New Photography: Michael and Josephine Mekseper Subotski" in the MoMA.

MICHAEL SUBOTSKI Samuel, Vaalkoppies (dump in Beaufort West) Submitted by: Michael Subotski and Goodman Gallery, South Africa Source: mamm-mdf . ru

MICHAEL SUBOTSKI Tamati, Beaufort West Prison Courtesy of: Michael Subotski and Goodman Gallery, South Africa Source: mamm-mdf.ru ​​

Jonny Steinberg, New York, 2008: "Before I saw these pictures Michael Subotski, I passed through Beaufort West ten or twenty times, never seeing the city. The longest highway in South Africa of nearly two thousand kilometers, connecting north and south, and runs right through the town of Beaufort West, for a short time, becoming its main street.

When I first saw pictures of Subotski, I instantly knew this place. The first thing that popped into my head was, "Well, of course". Prisoners in orange robes, carcasses of animals - prey hunter - tied to the truck, even the color of anarchy in a pile of garbage and zhmuschiesya each other inhabitants of the landfill - it was all very recognizable.

Rural South Africa emptied during the lifetime of just something a couple of generations. Number of farms profitable decreased by almost a third. In towns such as Beaufort West, the population consists of very young and old, or of those who could not get elsewhere. There is nothing surprising in the fact that democracy was in a deep legacy of apartheid, possibly even an irreversible decline of the village. Troubles faced by the Beaufort West, see a clear statistical abstractions. Two-thirds of its adult residents are unemployed. In the town with a population of 37,000 per year killed over 20 people from this level of crime - 60 murders per 100,000 population - the hair stand on end. This is almost 10 times more than in New York, 20 times - than in London and a half times - than in Johannesburg, one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

MICHAEL SUBOTSKI Jacques cleans shoes, Beaufort West Prison Courtesy of: Michael Goodman and Subotski Gallery, South Africa Source: mamm-mdf.ru ​​

MICHAEL SUBOTSKI Jaco, Beaufort West Prison. Courtesy of: Michael Subotski and Goodman Gallery, South Africa Source: mamm-mdf.ru ​​

So we go back to prison for the roundabout. If you think about the fact that the prison was built hastily in the middle of the busiest highways in South Africa, is so striking that it is difficult even to understand it's funny, tragic, or just crazy. It seems that this is not a fragment of reality, and the product of a comedian who tried to express the attitude of this town to the world, passing by him.

partly why Subotski pictures give the impression of looking at something that you have always known, never saw. And it's not that the Karoo desert landscapes in his pictures are inhabited. The fact that the landscape here becomes a backdrop for images of imaginary people with these photos. With it, they carry themselves, elevate themselves, redefine themselves. Portraying them, not just links Subotski wilderness and people. It makes us anxious to go to travel and wants us to imagine how fancy the desert, those who live in it.

Almost every picture - thought staging, scaffolding which is desert. A boy on a heap of rubbish in the mask of Spider-Man, which he found among the debris, and children, holding a white sheet in the wind, a man in a mask from the movie "Scream" and the princess on horseback with a polished hooves, white girl with tags participating in the competition shoes on a high heels, standing on a black stage floor and posing the audience; snake and an elephant, gently staring at the patient in bed, the prisoner, lying against a wall painted with cacti, sand and stones, which, like a giant bubble that reflect the content of his consciousness. In each photograph models carry themselves somewhere - but where, we do not know ».

Source : Press Release Mamma