Ost.modern

There is an illusion behind reality, a lie behind the illusion, the truth behind the lie and reality behind the truth.

The photographs of Annemie Augustijns depict a world becoming visible through the net of facts and fantasising, efforts and failures, synergies and intentions – this is Eastern Europe in the 21st century.

‘Revelation’ might be too ceremonial an expression when describing these photos, moreover, it has rather strong spiritual connotations which is in stark contrast to a region that had an ungodly political system for more than half a century.

And still, the pictures of Augustijns reveal too much from the last decade of the Eastern block to be characterised as some kind of a visual history. Human figures are absent in her work – the atmosphere is created by hotels, museums, building interiors.

Eastern European man is portrayed by absentees, man and modernism are portrayed inside out, man and his clumsy eternity shown together. The focus of these pictures is timeless objects and spaces, the traces of a culture gone forever, evoking bitter nostalgia in those who contemplate them.