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- TIMEOUT
SHORTLIST
Dubrovnik
2007
page. 56
War through the lens
Dubrovnik’s best gallery has a global focus.
Portraits of Iraq, Afghanistan, the recent Lebanon conflict - these are the themes for 2007 at Dubrovnik’s striking contemporary gallery, War Photo Limited. Its vital venue, not just in local terms but, because of what it displays, internationally. The fact that many of its exhibitions tour is most appropriate.
Devotedly managed since its opening in 2003 by New Zealand war photographer Wade Goddard who came here in the early 1990s and stayed, the gallery could have easily limited its focus to the conflict going on here in the city. But Goddard quickly expanded its remit to exhibit work by some of the world’s leading exponents of this brave art, illustrating flash points around the world.
Much thought, guided by a photographers eye, is given to space and light. WPL has a contemplative atmosphere; you feel miles away from the Stradun crowds. The two-floor venue is practical, too, doubling up as a conference centre in the off months of January and February.
The first floor houses the current exhibition. The second is home to highlights from previous shows and, of course, the 1990s war in Yugoslavia. Viewing images of shells and fires raging in the Old Town, a place that today seems completely serene but for the constant patter of tourists’ footsteps, is disconcerting. You can even and watch slow-paced slide shows on large TV screens. Beware - it’s not easy viewing. The 2006 exhibition on Liberia was the hardest hitting yet: a photograph of a decapitated head produced audible gasps. Do not let this put you off - these images are real, the wars and the victims are real, and this is what we now term ‘collateral damage’. It is steeling, challenging but ultimately positive, and you leave feeling very lucky and energised to help. Photojournalist have risked their lives to deliver these images. Work is sold as limited edition prints for 10,000kn (1,350 euros). You can also not comments in the visitors’ book. ‘It moved me beyond words’ is typical.
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June 4th, 2008 - Radio Deutsche Welle
Muzej ratne fotografije u Dubrovniku
U Dubrovniku već pet godina postoji i radi Muzej ratne fotografije “War Photo Limited”, koji vodi Novozelanđanin Vejd Godard, bivši ratni fotoreporter Rojtersa, Njujork Tajmsa, Njuzvika…
Baš kao i jedinstveni muzej, i Godard je veoma zanimljiva figura: u Bosnu je došao 1992. godine, kada je počeo rat, sa 22 godine, bez ikakvog iskustva. Radio je prvo kao slobodni fotoreporter, obišao sva moguća ratišta u Bosni i postao u svetu priznati i poznati fotoreporter. Godard je radio i tokom rata na Kosovu, a potom se “penzionisao” i, po sopstvenom priznanju, odlučio da se ne vraća na prvu liniju jer više nije mogao da gleda užase rata.
“War Photo Limited” nije galerija jer se u njemu fotografije ne prodaju, već je pre svega izložbeni centar, a najpribližniji naziv mu je upravo “Muzej ratne fotografije”. Nalazi se u srcu zidina, usred starog grada. Galerija je u vlasništvu jednog biznismena iz Brisela, koji je veliki ljubitelj fotografije.
Vejd Godard za DW priča šta je cilj ovog projekta:
“Glavni cilj za otvaranje galerije je da pokaže ratove i sukobe, stvarnost rata, onakvom kakva ona zaista jeste. Da razobliči tu holivudsku verziju rata, takvu percepciju rata u kojoj dobri momci uvek pobeđuju a loši momci stradaju. U stvari, to nikada nije slučaj u stvarnom ratu, ta holivudska verzija. Jer u ratu svi stradaju i teško pate, bilo da su oni vojnici ili da su civili. Zato nema pobednika u ratu, a nema ni heroja.”
Do sada su u muzeju izlagali mnogi poznati svetski ratni fotoreporteri, sa temama kao što su: rat na prostoru bivše Jugoslavije, sukobi između Izraelaca i Palestinaca, rat u Libanu, Liberiji, Sijera Leoneu, izložba žena ratnih fotoreportera kako bi se video rat kroz ženske, a ne samo kroz muške oči... Vejd Godard kaže da je ratna fotografija najpribližnija istini o ratu onakvom kakav on zaista jeste:
“Nemamo nikakvu političku agendu ovde, naša agenda je jednostavno da pokažemo realnost rata. A politika svake posebne izložbe je zapravo jedino politika fotoreportera. Pošto sam i sam bio ratni fotoreporter, mogu da kažem da ne postoji niko kome bih verovao, sem fotoreporteru. On je taj koji je na samoj liniji sukoba, on je tamo stalno, on mora da bude tamo da bi snimio fotografiju. Novinar može da bude i stotinama kilometara daleko i da piše priču, on može da bude i u drugoj zemlji i da izveštava o ratu koji čak i ne posmatra. Zato su fotoreporteri oni kojima ja najviše verujem kada su ljudi iz medija u pitanju. Jer, ponavljam, oni naprosto ne mogu da rade svoj posao ako nisu u samom centru zbivanja.”
Ratna fotografija, po Godardu, pokazuje rat u svoj njegovoj nakaznosti:
“Mnoge svetske vlade pokušavaju da ublaže rat frazama poput ‘ograničena kolateralna šteta’. Tako da publika zapravo i ne razume šta te fraze znače. A ‘ograničena kolateralna šteta’ zapravo znači poginule žene i decu. I ako prikažemo publici ove fotografije, onda će sigurno puno bolje razumeti šta u stvari znači ‘ograničena kolateralna šteta’.”
A zašto baš Dubrovnik:
“Kao prvo, to je utvrđeni grad, a utvrđen je jer su se ovde ratovi dešavali stotinama, hiljadama godina. Dalje, Dubrovnik je prošao kroz zastrašujuće iskustvo rata 1991. i 1992. godine. I, na kraju, to je grad u koji dolaze turisti i putnici iz celog sveta. Dakle, imamo posetioce iz Amerike, iz Irske, iz Japana, iz Koreje, sa Novog Zelanda. Najmanje posetilaca imamo iz regiona bivše Jugoslavije, nego što bih ja volio ili što bi bilo očekivano. Ipak, to razumem, jer zbog nedavnih ratova na ovom prostoru i dalje ima puno dubokog bola i srdžbe.”
U muzeju je u toku i izložba “Krv i med”, američkog fotoreportera Rona Haviva, koja je pre sedam godina u Srbiji dočekana “na nož” i ocenjena kao “antisrpska”. Interesantna je recepcija ove izložbe u Hrvatskoj:
“Imali smo i nekoliko komentara na izložbu ‘Krv i med’ od strane ljudi iz Hrvatske, koji su kazali da je to prosrpska izložba. Kazali su da nema ni jedne fotografije koja bi prikazivala nekog hrvatskog vojnika u nekoj herojskoj pozi, jedino fotografije hrvatskih vojnika u bolničkim kolima. Oni smatraju da ima više fotografija koje se mogu pročitati kao fotografije srpskih vojnika u herojskim pozama, poput fotografije Arkana sa malim tigrom. Ali, Ron Haviv nije radio ovu izložbu kako bi pokazao da su jedni dobri, a drugi žrtve. Izložba ne govori o tome, već govori o aspektima rata: o strahu, o agresiji, o patnji, o depresiji. To nije izložba o tome ko je bio agresor a ko žrtva, to nije poenta priče. Ali, za ljude iz regiona osećanja u vezi sa ovim ratom očigledno su prejaka da bi mogli da shvate kakvu je nameru autor imao. Jer, bol je još uvek svež i još uvek je veoma prisutan.”
Dinko Gruhonjić
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Winter 2008 - The Unchanging Essence of War Photography
The image’s power rests ‘in the hands of intrepid, artistically gifted photojournalists who travel to trouble and assemble what they find without written commentary.’
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Nieman Report
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| http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100717 |
3 June 2004 - The New York Times
Photographic Images Of War in a Region That Knows the Subject
By NICHOLAS WOOD
3 June 2004
The New York Times
(c) 2004 New York Times Company
DUBROVNIK, Croatia, June 2 -- With his back to the camera, a cigarette in one hand and a gun in the other, the soldier nonchalantly kicks the body of a middle-aged woman as she lies dying on the ground. It is one of the most famous photographs of war in Bosnia, and 21-year-old Katie Shierlaw is staring at it for the first time, transfixed.
The picture, taken by the American photographer Ron Haviv, is among 700 or so in an exhibition called ''A Decade of War'' that officially opened Tuesday in this port, a Croatian beauty spot on the Adriatic and the scene of fierce fighting from 1991 to 1995.
War Photo Limited, the gallery that has mounted the exhibition, claims to be the first in the world dedicated exclusively to war photography. Its organizers say they aim to expose people to details of war that they have not seen before. The exhibition, the gallery's first, covers the Balkans wars that gripped this region for close to 10 years.
The photographs, brilliantly lighted on dark walls, range from the violent to the absurd. They include pictures of dozens of bodies, victims of the shelling of a Croatian city; artillery fire painting bright orange lines in the night sky; and a Serbian policeman offering water to an elderly Kosovar Albanian as his colleagues burn the old man's village down.
''It's shocking,'' said Ms. Shierlaw, from Niagara Falls, Ontario, who stepped into the gallery with a friend while on vacation in the city. ''I knew something went on, but not to this extent.''
The reactions of other foreign visitors, no matter what their ages, are similar. ''It's pretty hard to understand, pretty hard,'' one viewer commented in the visitors' book. Wrote another, ''I am shocked at my ignorance and how little knowledge I had of what was happening here.''
The exhibition features the work of 10 photographers who covered the wars, including Darko Bandic, Christopher Morris, Srdjan Ilic and Noel Quidu. All of the pictures on display have been selected by the photographers themselves, as opposed to being chosen by a curator or photo editor. That and the sheer range of photographs on display, War Photo Limited's organizers argue, exposes people to a more raw and vivid impression of the conflict than they are likely to have encountered before.
''I certainly believe that people get a much better idea of what happened than if they picked up a copy of a newsmagazine, even when the war was on,'' said Wade Goddard, the gallery's director and a photographer who also covered conflicts in the region.
The majority of visitors to the gallery through the summer are expected to be tourists, many of them brought by cruise ships that stop at Dubrovnik as they sail up the Adriatic. There are few visible scars of the war left in the city, and some visitors could be forgiven for not knowing that the spot they now walk through was under shell fire just nine years ago.
''I quite like the idea that you come here on holiday and it's very nice, and then suddenly you are back in reality,'' said War Photo Limited's owner, Frederic Hancez, a Belgian businessman who has invested close to $600,000 to convert the stone building where the gallery is housed. He visited Croatia repeatedly throughout the war, selling shoes, and struck up an interest in war photography after meeting members of the press corps. (''There was nobody else around to hang out with,'' apart from ''arms dealers and members of the U.N.,'' he explained.'')
But while this Western-financed show has perhaps had the desired effect on tourists unaware of what happened, the reaction from those who lived through or took part in the fighting has been mixed. The gallery was open free to residents of Dubrovnik throughout the winter. For some, the images are still too raw, even though nine years have passed since the fighting ended in this region.
Miljenko Popovic, 52, a former Croatian soldier and now owner of a snack bar opposite the gallery, said he did not want to see the photographs. ''There are too many emotions, wounds that have not been healed,'' he said.
Mr. Goddard has also faced criticism from other former soldiers who say that not enough heroic pictures of the Croatian army are on display. And some resident of the city have said that more photographs of the war in Dubrovnik should have been used. Mr. Haviv's collection, titled ''Blood and Honey,'' is the main show on display, and it encountered violent responses when it went on tour in Serbia in 2002. Nationalists there claimed the photographs presented a biased or anti-Serb view of the war. The exhibition was banned in two cities and was forced to close early in another.
Whether the reaction is hostility or shock, the exhibition has provided the photographers with an outlet for their work that some have said was lacking. Mr. Haviv used to believe his photographs could change the world, he said, but became frustrated when the world stood by impervious to what he saw.
''I now realize that this is part of a process,'' he said. ''One image can no longer change the world. It is just not possible anymore.'' The dialogue provoked by the exhibition and the work of War Photo Limited, he said, ''keeps me going.'' |
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17 July 2005 - Croatia-Israeli Palestinian War Exhibit
Dubrovnik war gallery captures youth in Israeli-Palestinian conflict
DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AP) _ Three photo exhibitions dedicated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its effect on children opened Sunday at an art gallery in this ancient walled city.
In the first exhibit in the War Photos Limited gallery, Danish photographer Jan Garup contrasts the lives of Palestinian and Israeli youths in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron. The exhibit, titled "Scars of David," explores the pressure children are under because of the conflict that surrounds them.
"Conflict Inherited," comprised of more than 600 images and prints by three Israeli and three Palestinian photographers working for international news agencies, also focuses on the lives of children caught up in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The exhibit is curated by Enric Marti, The Associated Press' chief of photography in Jerusalem.
The third exhibit, "Architectural Divide" by Gary Knight, concentrates on the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank to separate Palestinians from Israel.
"Whether built by the former communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe, the Chinese Imperial dynasties, the Persians or the Romans, all the other walls I have photographed that were built over the preceding 4,000 years cost a fortune, failed to achieve their stated aims and fell down," Knight said.
The exhibits will be open until Oct. 30. |
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28 Agosto 2005 - il manifesto - La storia, un fascio di immagini silenziose
Non capita spesso di imbattersi in vacanza in posti come il «War Photo Limited» di Dubrovnik. Nel centro storico della deliziosa cittadina dalmata, in uno dei vicoletti del bianco Strad?n, ? situata con discrezione e buon gusto questa particolare galleria d'arte, la prima nel mondo specializzata in foto di guerra. La «perla dell'Adriatico», ? citt? d'arte e di cultura. Nelle piazzette principali ? facilissimo incontrare musicisti e cantastorie, attori e poeti ubriachi; l'atmosfera che si respira sa di antico, di canzone perduta, di «spleen croato» che profuma le centinaia di scalinate piene di gatti del centro storico. In un contesto del genere, il «War Photo Limited» ? un pugno nell'occhio; le foto in esposizione rompono la magia del luogo e restituisco alla citt? realismo, sangue e scene dal mondo. L'idea di mettere su un museo delle foto di guerra ? del mecenate belga Frederic Hanrez che, da sempre appassionato di fotografia, nel 1993 giunse a Dubrovnik, se ne innamor? e decise di costruire in questa cittadina violentata dalle armi e dagli orrori, un tempio della memoria fotografica.
«L'idea ? nata al tavolo di un bar- racconta Hanrez- Bevevo un caff? con il foto-reporter Wade Goddard e mentre discutevamo di guerra e fotografia, abbiamo avuto come un'illuminazione...». Wade Goddard, uno dei pi? grandi fotoreporter del mondo, vincitore di numerosi premi, ? il direttore della galleria. «Il messaggio che vogliamo trasmettere attraverso le esposizioni - afferma- ? che la guerra non ? veloce, pulita, dimenticabile, piuttosto ? brutale e indimenticabile, ? un cancro per le popolazioni che la vivono».
Goddard ci spiega che la scelta di Dubrovnik ? dipesa anche da ci? che la cittadina dalmata e il contesto in cui ? inserita rappresentano per l'Europa. Fino a 10 anni fa scenario di scontri di civilt?, Dubrovnik, conserva il marchio della guerra nelle sue strade e sui volti della sua gente. «Noi speriamo - afferma Goddard - di diventare il posto nel mondo dove la fotografia di guerra possa portare il suo messaggio al pubblico, un luogo dove non solo sia possibile gettare un ponte tra il pubblico e l'orrore della guerra ma dove sia possibile innanzitutto stabilire una relazione tra l'audience e il fotografo. Il fotografo ? il nostro occhio sul mondo, lo specchio del nostro presente. Se decidiamo di poterci ancora fidare delle immagini, dobbiamo fidarci di lui».
Cos? la galleria non ? soltanto un moderno e equipaggiato luogo espositivo ma diviene, nelle intenzioni dei proprietari, casa della fotografia e dei fotografi che giungono da ogni parte a parlare con il pubblico del loro lavoro e delle esperienze vissute. La politica di gestione del luogo ?, infatti, sempre quella del fotografo mai quella del pubblico. Periodicamente vengono organizzati seminari, dibattiti, workshops con i protagonisti.
Le esposizioni in corso (fino al 30 ottobre 2005) curate da Enric Marti, capo fotografo dell'Associated Press di Gerusalemme, «The scars of David», «Conflict Inherited» e «Architectural Divide» vedono la partecipazione attiva e diretta di grandi foto-reporter, Jan Grarup, Gary Knight, Gali Tibbon della France Press, Oded Balilty della Associated Press, i quali hanno documentato con la passione e il coraggio di chi sa fondere arte e informazione, il conflitto israeliano-palestinese, riuscendo a donarci le due prospettive; quella dei «ragazzi di Ramallah» e quella dei «ragazzi di Hebron», restituendoci l'orrore visivo e umano della barriera di separazione fatta costruire dal governo israeliano per «prevenire» attacchi kamikaze palestinesi, offrendoci lo sguardo di tre fotografi palestinesi e tre israeliani sulle guerre intestine che si scatenano nei territori occupati. «Ci? che colpisce di pi? rispetto alle guerre - ha affermato Ron Haviv fotografo newyorkese di Newsweek - ? che esse hanno molte pi? similarit? che differenze. Puoi cambiare i nomi e i luoghi ma la retorica di chi le scatena sar? sempre la stessa, cos? come i risultati. A pagarne le spese sono sempre poveri civili».
Goddard racconta che tanti visitatori escono dalla galleria con gli occhi lucidi, spesso si avvicinano al desk dell'entrata per chiedere fazzoletti o rimangono ore a cercare le stesse immagini nei libri della piccola biblioteca del «War Photo Limited». «La potenza della fotografia sta nella possibilit? del ricordo- afferma Goddard- Ho sentito dire che la storia ? un fascio di immagini silenziose». La gente di Dubrovnik che attraversa il flusso di turisti del centro, raramente si ferma dinanzi alla galleria, dove all'entrata si trovano in esposizione permante alcune crudissime foto inerenti il «loro conflitto», quello dei Balcani. Quando lo fanno ci rimangono ore, immobili, in silenzio. La reazione dei cittadini dinanzi all'apertura della galleria, inaugurata nel giugno del 2004 proprio con una mostra sui conflitti nella ex-Jugoslavia, ? controversa, ostile. La ragione forse ? da rintracciare nella funzione stessa del «War Photo Limited»; luogo nato, come un memoriale vivo, per ricordare, in un contesto dove forse la gente ha ancora troppo bisogno di dimenticare.
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| http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/28-Agosto-2005/art99.html |
July 2004 - Digital Journalist
View from the Photo Desk - by Roger Richards
This month we feature a Q&A with Wade Goddard, curator of War Photo Limited, a new museum of war photography located in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Follow link for full story |
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| http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0407/richards.html |
Feb 24, 2004 - AFP
DUBROVNIK, Croatia, Feb 24 (AFP) - A Serb officer hands a bottle of water to a Kosovo Albanian as houses burn in the background. A human gesture, but a horrified look in the eyes of the thirsty old man reveals the horror suffered by ethnic Albanians during Kosovo's 1998-99 conflict.
Another image shows two Serbs, father and son, posing proudly in front of houses "wounded" by heavy artillery bombardment in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar, the symbol of the country's suffering during the 1991-95 war with rebel Serbs.
A Serb irregular kicks the head of a dead Muslim woman who has just been executed in the streets of the northeastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina at the outbreak of that country's 1992-95 war.
These photos, along with many others which speak for thesmelves, are the work of a dozen photographers who covered the conflicts that tore apart the former Yugosalvia in the 1990s.
They are on display in a center in the southern Croatian town of Dubrovnik which curators hope to turn into the first museum dedicated solely to war photography.
"I am confident that the Croatian culture ministry will soon accept our proposal and grant us the status of a museum," project chief and war photographer Wade Goddard said.
The exhibition is titled "Blood and Honey," a translation of the Turkish word Balkan.
It displays the work of Ron Haviv, Jon Jones, Christopher Morris, Bjorn Larsen, Jan Grarup, Noël Quidu, Darko Bandic, Yannis Behrakis, Srdjan Ilic and Andrew Testa.
"People will have the opportunity to admire the work of the most famous war photographers but our real goal is to change the Hollywood-style image of the war and to show the cruel reality and horror of conflicts," Goddard explains.
The gallery, which plans to organize anti-war seminars, will also host exhibitions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the war in Afghanistan and the US-led invasion of Iraq.
In September the photographers of Agence France-Presse will be featured in an exhibition entitled "10 Years of War".
Belgian businessmen Frederic Handres, an admirer of the skill and dedication of war photographers, came up with the idea for the museum and has provided all the funding, Goddard added.
The coastal city of Dubrovnik, a UNESCO world cultural heritage site and Croatia's most famous Adriatic resort which was heavily shelled by the former Yugoslav army, was an easy choice for the location of the gallery.
So far hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars) have been invested in the future museum, located in the old part of the town, and a website has been set up at www.warphotoltd.com.
Expensive printing techniques using liqufied charcoal have been used to ensure the highest quality and survivability of the images, which are expected to last at least 100 years.
"The effect should encourage visitors to communicate between themselves. We don't want to be a museum in the classic sense," Goddard said.
Signed photos are on sale for prices from 800 and 1,800 euros (1,000-2,300 dollars), and while they are not cheap many have already sold to a variety of buyers including an "American involved in NATO enlargment who was familiar with the region", Goddard said.
"The money has been reinvested into the museum," he added.
Correction.
War Photo Limited plans to become a Museum, there is no fixed date as to when and if we become a Museum, We will open the center officially in June 2004.
bal=honey and kan= blood
balkan means mountain in turkish.
Our current exhibit "A Decade of War" is a group exhibit, which features Ron Haviv's "Blood and Honey" exhibit
Wade Goddard |
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02 Jun 2004 - Dubrovnik photo exhibition dashes war's euphemisms
DUBROVNIK, Croatia, June 2 (Reuters) - Stark images by some of the world's best war photographers went on permanent display this week in Dubrovnik, stripping away Hollywood's gloss on war and the euphemisms of leaders who try to sanitise it.
The War Photo exhibition is a vision of human conflict in the modern age that early visitors have called powerful, painful, beautiful, brutal, courageous and indispensable.
It focuses on the 1990s wars that devastated Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo as former Yugoslavia was rent apart, stunning complacent Europe with its worst conflict since World War Two.
This medieval fortress port -- whose architectural gems Serb forces shelled from the hills in 1991 -- became an icon of Croatia's war of secession, though more blood was spilt elsewhere.
War Photo aims to become a must-see for foreign tourists now thronging here, says New Zealand-born organiser Wade Goddard. Restoration may have smoothed over much of the damage but the exhibition brings home to visitors the awful cost of war.
"Initially when I came to the Balkans it was a mission to try to prevent atrocities from occurring, to inform, to educate not only the citizens of the world but the politicians," said Ron Haviv, 38, a Newsweek photographer from New York.
Progress is slow, he acknowledged. He has covered well over a dozen conflicts since 1991, with no sign of any let-up.
"Either you give up and don't do it and let people just go about their business and think war is easy and nobody really dies...or myself and my colleagues keep trying," said Haviv, whose "Blood and Honey" collection heads that of 10 contemporaries from the world's small corps of dedicated war photographers.
The images include child corpses chillingly captured by Christopher Morris, Haviv's colleague in their new Paris-based VII Agency, and a shot by Jon Jones of Dubrovnik in flames.
HOW IT ONCE WAS
Dubrovnik's timeless blend of sea, sun and charming marbled alleys smoothed by centuries of feet is "the Mediterranean as it once was", to quote the tourism slogan Croatia is using to lure tourists back to a spectacular coast they fled during war.
The images also show "how it once was" here not so long ago. They hang in a three-storey Dalmatian building of hand-hewn beams and cut stone, an ironmonger's warehouse bought by the project originator, Belgian entrepreneur Frederic Hanrez.
Among the traditional prints, plasma screens let visitors watch high-resolution slide shows of war's tender quirks and vicious banalities, as seen through the unique eye of Reuters' Yannis Behrakis, and Jan Grarup's unforgiving black-and-white lens.
"What's most striking is the similarities between wars rather than differences," said Haviv.
"If you change names and places, the rhetoric always sounds the same (and) the results are, tragically, quite often the same. Mostly it's the innocent civilians that are suffering." Some red-eyed visitors end up using tissues discreetly on hand at Goddard's reception desk. Their written comments reflect shocked praise and appeals that "it may never happen again".
Goddard said most were grateful to see the realities of war instead of "the 15 seconds of newsreel they have on the television about the glory of killing the bad guy".
"Our idea is to have at least one major exhibition every summer concerning a different war," he added, which would run alongside the permanent display.
With current events in Afghanistan and Iraq, to name but two of around two dozen current conflicts, that will not be hard. |
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| www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B532631.htm |
21 August 2004 - LE MONDE
LE MONDE | 21.08.04 |
Au bord de l'Adriatique, la mémoire des images des guerres de notre temps
En Croatie s'ouvre le premier musée consacré a la photographie des conflits armés.
Dubrovnik (Croatie) de notre envoyé spécial
C'est dans une maison d'Antuninska, étroite ruelle au coeur de la forteresse de Dubrovnik, que le musée War Photo Limited a ouvert ses portes, avec une ambition : raconter la guerre en images.
War Photo Limited est né de la rencontre entre deux hommes, deux amoureux de la Croatie et de la photographie : un millionnaire belge passionné d'art, Frédéric Hanrez, 40 ans, et un photographe néo-zélandais, Wade Goddard, 34 ans, aujourd'hui propriétaire et directeur du musée.
Le premier débarqué dans les Balkans, c'est Wade Goddard. Electricien sur des lignes a haute tension en Nouvelle-Zélande, il arrive a Mostar en guerre en 1992, "comme un idiot, avec deux boîtiers", dit-il, pour se lancer dans le photojournalisme. Durant sept ans, Goddard documente les conflits de Bosnie-Herzégovine et du Kosovo pour l'agence Sygma, avant de s'installer a Zagreb pour une histoire d'amour. La, il décide que c'en est fini avec la guerre. "Mes amis sont partis couvrir d'autres points chauds. Moi, ma fille venait de naître. Je ne voulais pas aller en Afghanistan." Fred Hanrez arrive pour sa part a Dubrovnik en 1993, tandis que la ville panse encore ses plaies. Descendant d'une famille d'artistes, de marchands d'art et de mécanes, enrichi au gré de ses pérégrinations (import-export de chaussures, immobilier, restaurant a Barcelone, aujourd'hui gaz en Indonésie et discothaque a Bruxelles), Fred Hanrez achete des maisons dans le vieux Dubrovnik, et cherche une idée...
"C'est ici, au café Festival, que j'ai eu l'idée d'un musée de la photographie de guerre contemporaine, se souvient Fred Hanrez. D'une part parce que j'ai toujours aimé l'art, et d'autre part parce que je connaissais Wade et d'autres photographes de guerre. Et puis, je crois que l'important dans la vie, c'est de donner. Je crois au mécénat. Je ne donne rien a la Croix-Rouge mais je claque mon fric dans un musée, un lieu dont je veux qu'il devienne éducatif."
Fred Hanrez veut faire de War Photo Limited "l'endroit incontournable de la photographie de guerre dans le monde d'ici dixa vingt ans", un musée ou "les photographes de guerre contemporains peuvent s'exprimer sans aucune contrainte". La structure ne se contentera pas d'exposer les photographes mais les aidera a financer leurs tirages, livres, ouvres multimédias. Et Hanrez veut par ailleurs, "a raison d'une centaine de photos par an", constituer "une collection unique que nous serons fiers d'exposer a New York ou Paris". Il achete des images aux photographes exposant rue Antuninska et a d'autres. Sa collection sera datée historiquement : elle commencera aux alentours de 1990, avec les conflits yougoslaves. Je veux etre contemporain. Je veux découvrir des talents. Et je veux raconter une histoire, celle du monde dans lequel je vis."
Apres une discrete mise en route, les deux salles d'exposition de War Photo Limited ont ouvert officiellement le 1er juin. Les deux expositions qui se relaient cette année, "A Decade of War" (Une décennie de guerre en ex-Yougoslavie) et "War : USA-Afghanistan-Iraq", de l'agence VII, correspondent a ce choix, couvrant le temps qui va de Vukovar en 1991 jusqu'a Bagdad en 2003.
"A Decade of War", qui sera a nouveau accroché a partir du 20 septembre, réunit dix photographes : une salle accueille Ron Haviv et son exposition personnelle Blood and Honey ; l'autre salle expose Darko Bandic, Yannis Behrakis, Jan Grarup, Srdjan Ilic, Jon Jones, Claus Bjorn Larsen, Christopher Morris, Noël Quidu et Andrew Testa.
Jusqu'au 17 septembre, on peut voir l'exposition de l'agence VII inspirée du livre War : USA-Afghanistan-Iraq (éd. de MO, 2003), qui réunit des tirages de Christopher Anderson, Alexandra Boulat, Lauren Greenfield, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey et John Stanmeyer.
"LA GUERRE N'EST JAMAIS JOLIE"
Mais War Photo Limited ne se contente pas d'accrocher les images. Pour accompagner A Decade of War, des photographes (Chris Morris, avec une collection d'une violence extreme, ou Noël Quidu) ont choisi de projeter leurs images de dix années de conflits balkaniques. Le cinéma présente une ouvre de Ron Haviv melant photo et son sur les trois semaines d'offensive américaine en Irak, dont le public affirme sortir abasourdi, tandis que d'autres écrans montrent le travail d'Alexandra Boulat a Bagdad, ou La Bataille pour le pont de Diyala, photographiée au plus pres par Gary Knight. Et le musée sert aussi d'agent pour les photographes, vendant leurs tirages a Dubrovnik et sur Internet.
Fred Hanrez a, outre son ambition de collectionneur d'art, deux préoccupations : "la liberté du photographe" et "l'envie de toucher un public occidental qui se croit souvent a l'abri de la guerre". Wade Goddard tient pour sa part un discours pacifiste : "War Photo Limited veut adresser le message que la guerre ne mérite jamais d'etre faite, qu'elle n'est jamais ni propre ni jolie, mais sale et impardonnable. Je veux montrer au public ce qu'il ne voit pas dans la presse, les photographies les plus dures. Et ici, les photographes ne dépendent pas d'un journal ou d'un éditeur, ils s'adressent directement aux gens."
War Photo Limited accueille ceux qui viennent a Dubrovnik pour la plage et les calamars grillés, et qui découvrent les guerres de ce monde. "Dubrovnik est un lieu idéal, dit Wade Goddard, parce qu'il y a eu en ex-Yougoslavie le pire conflit européen depuis la seconde guerre mondiale, mais aussi parce que nous pouvons toucher des centaines de milliers de gens venus de tous horizons."
C'est la photographie de guerre a portée de tous, présentée par ses auteurs. Les photographes de guerre, de plus en plus déçus par la presse illustrée, souvent amers par rapport a la présentation de leurs images, se pressent d'ailleurs d'évoquer leurs désirs avec Hanrez et Goddard.
Rémy Ourdan |
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2005 - Travel Guide critics
LONELY PLANET - Croatia, Jeanne Oliver, edition 2005
For a change from the ancient and the artsy, try the excellent WAR PHOTOS LIMITED managed by former photojournalist Wade Goddard. The award-winning photos on display here concentrate on the subtleties of human violence rather that on its carnage. The permanent exhibition focuses on the Balkan wars but temporary exhibits will include other wars.
THE BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE - Croatia and Dubrovnik, Piers Letcher, edition 2005
WAR PHOTO GALLERY
Continue down Prijeko for most of its length - or if it's already approaching lunchtime consider avoiding the touts by walking along the old city's uppermost street, Peline, which gives great views down the steep-stepped streets crossing Prijeko - and then turn left down Antuninska, where you'll find the extraordinary Dubrovnik War Photo gallery.
It's one of the city's newest and most moving galleries, and I can't recommend a visit too highly. Specializing in first-rate temporary exhibitions by the world's greatest modern-war photographers, the gallery aims, as the New Zealand-born director Wade Goddard says, “to strip away the Hollywood image of war, to replace the glamour, the heroic bravura, the “only the bad guys suffer“ image of war, with the raw and undeniable evidence that war inflicts injustices on all who experience it.'
It would require a heart of stone to come away unmoved by the extraordinary (and often painful) images. When I visited in the summer of 2004, Ron Haviv's breathtaking “Blood and Honey“ collection was on show - “bal“ being Turkish for “honey“ and “kan“ being Turkish for “blood“. Haviv won the World Press Photo award for his iconic pictures of the fall of Vukovar in 1991, and is one of the cofounders of agency VII (see www.viiphoto.com). |
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