Second Cities
Opening: 8th of May, 8.00 p.m., EC1, Targowa 1/3
Artists:
Francesc Fabregas, Ramon Roca-Sastre (Barcelona, E), Paul Sigve Amudsen (Bergen, N), Roman Franc, Vojta Slama, Evzen Sobek, Martin Zeman (Brno, CZ), Harry Moore (Cork, IRL), Alnis Stakle (Daugavpils, LV), Daniel Hermes (Graz, AT), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Romualdas Pozerskis (Kaunas, LT), Marek Domanski, Ula Tarasiewicz, Artur Urbanski, Borys Tyszecki (Lodz, PL), Gilles Verneret , Yves Neyrolles Pierre Vallet (Lyon, FR), Aleksandra Vajd (Maribor, SL), Giuseppe Pons (Milano, IT), Paula Muhr (Novi Sad, SRB), Luis Barbosa, Ines D’Orey, Virgilio Ferreira, Limamil (Porto, P), Marc van Naamen (Rotterdam, NL), Kaarel Nurk (Tartu, EST), George Kiriakides, Sophia Tolika (Thessaloniki, GR), Gerhard Gross (Graz, AT)
Curated by: Pavel Maria Smejkal, Kosice, SK
According to a definition, the second city of a country is the second most important city after the capital, considering population size, economic status or cultural significance. I live in a city that is like a smaller and weaker brother of its capital city and, as I found out, inhabitants of second cities have a similar relationship to their ‘big brothers’ – and not only in Europe.
The photographers collected here, living in their respective ‘Second Cities’, offer us their view of their living space. Like me, they also consider their cities beautiful and interesting, but at the same time full of contrasts and paradoxes. Like me, they love their cities, but they try to see the world around them realistically and in all its complexity. As a photographic project, the ‘Second Cities’ project is a special opportunity to get a view on the contemporary European documentary photography in all its approaches, techniques, points of view and styles. The exhibition gathers various photographic projects, all of which deal in a “subjective”, “conceptual” or just “documentary” manner with 17 second cities around Europe. The images were taken by photographers who live, were born or have resided in the respective cities. (Pavel Maria Smejkal)
The project was supported by the city Kosice, European Culture Capital 2013
