Balkan Vital Graphics

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BALKAN VITAL GRAPHICS

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“These photos are from two series, On the expectation side (Bor, Serbia) and Belgrade 07 by Vlado Alonso , which have been taken during the last two years. The people of these places are caught up in a series of accelerating economic processes, which in turn drive social trends that seem to obey their own logic, producing increasing ine- quality. Such changes are generally spread over several decades, but here they have been packed into just a few years follow- ing the post-war upheaval. These pictures represent an attempt to capture a particu- lar place and time. It is within that specific framework that the subject matter takes on its full meaning. A trial of photographic objectivity, which throws out any claim to realism but reha- bilitates the pictorial merits of the artist’s work, countering what may seem blinding- ly obvious and demanding that we recon- sider everything, starting with what is most familiar, in the light of our astonishment.” Michel Thévoz , writer and former curator of the Musée d’Art Brut in Lausanne

Vlado Alonso Paintball (Belgrade 2007)