05 Oct 2015

Lucia Nimcová, Martin Kollár, Sholto Dobie, AlbumArte, Rome

As part of the 14th edition of FOTOGRAFIA – International Festival of Rome, AlbumArte is pleased to present the double solo exhibition of Lucia Nimcová and Martin Kollár entitled From Room to Roam, curated by Lýdia Pribišová. The exhibition opens on Tuesday 6 October and will run until 1 December 2015.

The spaces of AlbumArte will host Lucia Nimcová and Martin Kollár's most recent projects, both of which have been developed in Ukraine. Their thoughts on the country's plight are not expressed directly, but restored through the inhabitants, their behaviour and their struggle to shape their daily lives. In the words of the curator, Lýdia Pribišová, 'The war is invisible and yet a constant presence…' For the two Slovak artists, who are so close to the Ukrainian reality, the political situation is inevitably a relevant question. Martin Kollár and Lucia Nimcová share a complicity and a similar sense of humor that prove the lust for life in Ukraine and the different ways in which people confront reality. Their childhood spent 'behind' the Iron Curtain and their cultural proximity to Ukraine help them understand the present status quo in the country on a private level: those experiences re-echo their way of thinking, in the creation and the aesthetic of their works.

Lucia Nimcová is an artist with a profound interest in all the cultural and social relations that form daily life in Eastern Europe. For AlbumArte, in collaboration with the sound artist Sholto Dobie, Lucia Nimcová presents a work in progress: Khroniky. The artists themselves define it as a folk work of art: a collection of songs, stories, music, performance and field sound recordings that can be inscribed into a hybrid context of ethnographic document and musical theatre.

Martin Kollár – the recent winner of the first edition of the Prix Elysée – presents a site specific installation of images that belong to his larger work in progress Provisional Arrangements. In his photographs taken in Odessa and Kiev, the artist represents Ukrainian prisons with no people, capturing the dissolving of permanence in temporary moments in time and space, and looking at prisons within an innovative modality that avoids stereotypes.

The project was developed with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, in collaboration with Slovak association Pilot, with the patronage of Assessorato alla Cultura e allo Sport of Roma Capitale and Assessorato alla Cultura, Grandi Eventi, Turismo, Relazioni Internazionali del Municipio II of Roma Capitale. The organizers would like to thank Casale del Giglio and Terra di Sapori e Saperi.
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Lucia Nimcová was born in 1977. Lives and works in Brussels and Humenné. Nimcová studied at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She has recently exhibited her works at Prague Biennale; Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow; Viafarini, Milan; Utah Museum of Contemporary Arts and Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Awards include; the Images Vevey Photography Prize (Switzerland), ECB Photography Award (Germany), Oskar Cepan Award (Slovakia), Leica Oskar Barnack Award (Germany) and Baume and Mercier Award (Italy). Her works have been acquired by Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, MUDAM Luxembourg, Slovak National Gallery and private collectors worldwide.

Sholto Dobie is an artist working with music, sound, performance and events. Born in 1991 Edinburgh (UK) and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Exhibited at Platform: Camden Art Centre (London). Curated Muckle Mouth, Peckham Liberal Club (London). Recipient of the Sue Jamieson Memorial Award and Dolbey Travel Scholarship which made this project possible.

Martin Kollár was born in 1971 in Žilina, Czechoslovakia (now Slovak Republic). He studied at the Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava and has been working as a freelance photographer and cinematographer since he graduated. He has received several grants and awards, including the Prix Elysee and the Oskar Barnack Award. His work has been exhibited across the world, including Martin Gropius Bau Berlin - Germany, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv – Israel, Maison Européenne de la Photographie Paris - France, Rencontres d' Arles in France, MOCA Shanghai China, Guandong Museum of Art in China. He has published three photography books, Nothing Special (2008) and Cahier (2011) and Field trip (2013).