For the past few decades the work of the French photographer Sophie Ristelhueber has been devoted to the subject of the reception of media images of war-torn regions, as well as the various impacts on natural and urban environments left by armed conflicts, natural disasters and cultural transformations. Following the effects of war and documenting the “scars” that they leave on natural and urban landscapes, Ristelhueber recorded the consequences in the war-torn territories of Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, the Balkans and others. Sophie Ristelhueber has been developing her artistic practice, specific and engaged reflections of the geographical territories and their attributing histories, through a unique exploration of the landscapes and ruins phenomena, as places that bear traces of dramatic social or natural changes. The author also further elaborates the approach that conceptually intertwines the documentary and the aesthetic through various media (photography, video, installation, audio) as well as through exhibiting formats. During the conversation, the artist will get the domestic professional and wider audience acquainted with the formal and problem-thematic aspects of her artistic activity through examples from decades-long photographic work.

“The images of art do not supply weapons for battle. They help sketch new configurations of what can be seen, what can be said and what can be thought and, consequently, a new landscape of the possible. But they do so on condition that their meaning or effect is not anticipated. This resistance to anticipation can be seen illustrated by a photograph taken by the French artist Sophie Ristelbueber.”

Jacques RancièreThe Emancipated Spectator

Sophie Ristelhueber (1949) lives in Paris, where she studied literature and worked as a journalist before deciding to devote herself to photography. Working far from conventional photojournalism, Sophie has focused her work on uncovering events and landmarks of history, both on bodies and landscapes. Her works have been exhibited in numerous international institutions, including: MoMA (New York), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo), The Power Plant (Toronto), Tate Modern (London), Imperial War Museum (London), Biennials in Johannesburg and São Paulo, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (Niigata Prefecture, Japan), The Rencontres d’Arles (Arles), MNAM – Centre Pompidou (Paris), Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (Paris), Musée Zadkine (Paris), Musée Rodin (Paris), etc.

Ivana Momčilović is a Yugoslav playwright, poet and editor based in Brussels. Her work is focused on the displacement of philosophy and art into different spheres of everyday life (Cultural Committee for 13 charged workers of the steel factory Clabecq and Renault Belgium in 2000; Cultural Committee for the Movement of Undocumented Immigrants, Belgium). She dedicated to the research of the relationships between fiction and ideology, as well as those between aesthetics, emancipation and education (institutional/non-institutional knowledge), forms of collective intelligence and the “amateur” position towards knowledge, redefining the concepts of: impossible, non-existent, free temporary territories and their applications in the field of aesthetics and politics. Initiator and active member of several collectives: EI-Migrative Art Collective (1992, Belgium); Edicija Jugoslavija (samizdat, focused on the theory/poetics of emancipation and equality + surrealism, 2009), a research group on interruption (as an emancipatory opening) and PhD In One Night – an international platform for aesthetic experimentation and education for all.

Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade

Pariska 14

Monday, October 24, 2022 at 7 p.m.

The conversation is moderated by: Una Popović, curator of the Collection of Photography, Film, Video and Digital Media at MoCAB and Ivana Momčilović, playwright – Edicija Jugoslavija, PhD In One Night

The conversation will be held in English.

The event is organised in cooperation with the Edicija Jugoslavija and with the support of the French Institute in Belgrade.