Alexander Chekmenev, Passport.
Mihai Barabancea.
Zbigniew Libera, Positives.
We invite you to an exhibition in the unique form of a collage publication. It will be on display in one of the storefront windows at the Old Market.
Eastern Europe has been a geopolitical buffer zone for centuries, and as a result the people who live here have had to learn to communicate by reading between the lines and laughing at their own impossible situations, which has given rise to an unmistakably unique way of expression, the Eastern European grotesque. Rather than focusing on the differences between the many peoples across the region, and on the East–West divide that has been left forgotten behind from the Cold War and is becoming less and less relevant with globalization, the G.R.O.T.E.S.K photo project is drawing attention to what connects us, our common values, by showing the best absurd photographs from Eastern Europe, through this publication and exhibitions in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary in 2025!
G.R.O.T.E.S.K project is realized in the collaboration of Summa Artium (Budapest, Hungary), Fotofestiwal (Łódź, Poland), Fotograf Zone (Prague, Czech Republic) and OFF Bratislava (Bratislava, Slovakia).
/ The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
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Exhibitions in 2025:
June 12–22 Fotofestiwal (Łódź, Poland)
August 20–24 Arcus Temporum Art Festival (Pannonhalma, Hungary)
October 3–12 Fotograf Festival (Prague, Czech Republic)
November 7–21 OFF Bratislava (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Photographers:
HUNGARY: Csilla Klenyánszki, Hórusz Archive (Sándor Kardos), Éva Szombat, László Török, Zsuzsi Ujj;
CZECHIA: Oskar Helcel, Dita Pepe, Iren Stehli;
SLOVAKIA: Andrej Balco, Martin Kollár, Zuzana Pustaiová, Viktor Šelesták;
POLAND: Zbigniew Libera, Natalia LL, Rafał Milach, Agnieszka Sejud;
ROMANIA: Mihai Barabancea, Tamás Hajdu;
UKRAINE: Alexander Chekmenev, Julie Poly
Concept: István Virágvölgyi, Capa Center (Budapest, Hungary)
Curators: Sára Jeleňová, OFF Bratislava (Bratislava, Slovakia), Světlana Malina, Fotograf Zone (Prague, Czech Republic); Marta Szymańska, Fotofestiwal (Łódź, Poland)
Project coordinator: Andrea Szűcs, Summa Artium (Budapest, Hungary)
Graphic design: Nóra Szücs (Graz, Austria)
Special thanks to István Arnold, Markéta Kinterová, Dusan Kochol, Jacob Mikanowski, Veronika Zachar.
Facebook and Instagram: @grotesque.eastern.europe
Photo captions (by order):
Alexander Chekmenev,
born in: 1969, Ukraine, based in: Kyiv, Ukraine
Passport (1994–1995)
Following Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union, Alexander Chekmenev was commissioned to photograph immobile residents in Luhansk, Eastern Ukraine for their compulsory new Ukrainian passports. Accompanying social workers delivering aid, the photographer witnessed the poignant realities of people in the final stages of their lives, some grappling with illness, disability, or mental hardship. Through intimate portraits, the series reflects on themes of identity, bureaucracy, and human vulnerability during a period of national transition. Created three decades ago in a region now marked by war, the photographs stand as a poignant record of individuals and their place within a shifting historical landscape.
Mihai Barabancea,
born in: 1983, Romania, based in: Bucharest, Romania
Zbigniew Libera,
born in: 1959, Poland, based in: Warsaw, Poland
Positives (2002–2003)
Zbigniew Libera reimagines some of the most traumatic and iconic photographs of the 20th century – not by reproducing their horror, but by restaging them as oddly cheerful scenes. These images, drawn from collective memory, such as the napalm girl in Vietnam or the death of Che Guevara, are filtered through the soft lens of recollection. Libera explores how we remember trauma: not through direct confrontation, but through distorted afterimages, a constant interplay between memory, photography, and imagination. The series becomes a meditation on how photography shapes our understanding of history, and the result is a paradoxical encounter: viewers are drawn into a process of recollection that feels both familiar and estranging.
