Olga Kravets, Maria Morina et Oksana Yushko exposées à la BnF avec « Grozny Nine Cities »

L’exposition de la Bourse du Talent 2016 est présentée à la Bnf jusqu’au 26 mars prochain avec le soutien de Picto Foundation. Chaque semaine, nous vous donnons rendez-vous pour découvrir les travaux des photographes exposés. Après avoir interviewer les quatre lauréats, nous partageons avec vous les séries coup de cœur présentées aux côtés des lauréats. Aujourd’hui focus sur la série « Grozny Nine Cities » d’Olga Kravets, Maria Morina et Oksana Yushko, sélectionnées à la Bourse du Talent sur le thème de l’Espace, Paysage.

Initialement membres du collectif « Verso », composé de cinq photographes documentaires russes et remarqué par le Aftermath Project, le Young Photographers of Russia award et le War on Want’s Document Photography, Olga Kravets, Maria Morina et Oksana Yushko se sont lancées dans le projet « Grozny Nine Cities » en 2009 curaté par Anna Shpakova.
Fortes du constat que la Tchétchénie, vingt ans après le conflit avec la Russie, demeure un pays tiraillé entre valeurs tchéchènes, traditions musulmanes et aspirations de la mondialisation, les trois photographes donnent à lire la capitale selon neuf angles précis, témoignant du morcellement d’une cité marquée par les soubresauts de l’Histoire.
Puisant leur inspiration dans la structure du roman « Theophilus North » de Thornton Wi lder, les photographes ont opéré un découpage urbain – la ville des gens ordinaires, des religions, du pétrole, des hommes, des étrangers, des serviteurs, des femmes,
de la guerre, et enfin la ville qui a cessé d’exister. Leur travail prend la forme d’une installation croisant des vidéos et des tirages photographiques.

Pour en savoir plus sur les photographes :
http://www.olgakravets.com
http://mariamorina.com
http://youok.ru

Retrouvez les interviews des lauréats :
> Rencontre avec Hicham Gardaf, lauréat de la Bourse du Talent Espace
>  Rencontre avec Charles-Henry Bédué, lauréat de la Bourse du Talent Mode 
>  Rencontre avec Vincent Gouriou, lauréat de la Bourse du Talent Portrait 
>  Rencontre avec Sandra Mehl, lauréate de la Bourse du Talent Reportage

EXPOSITIONS
• Bourse du Talent – Edition 2016
/!\ Derniers Jours !
Du 15 décembre 2016 au 26 mars 2017
BnF – Site François-Mitterrand
Allée Julien Cain
Quai François-Mauriac
75706 Paris Cedex 13
Du mardi au samedi de 9h à 20h
dimanche de 13h à 19h
lundi de 14h à 20h
Fermé les jours fériés
Entrée libre
http://www.bnf.fr
http://www.picto.fr/pictofoundation/

LIVRE
Identités à venir
Bourse du Talent 2016
Editions Delpire
ISBN : 979-10-95821-05-2
22€
http://www.delpire-editeur.fr

Texte original de la série écrit par Anna Nemtsova, correspondante de Newsweek et Daily Beast à Moscou.

Take a walk down Putin Prospect, Grozny’s main street, with shining marble facades, look carefully at long limbed Muslim women filing out of beauty salons, men riding brand new SUV, and you would never believe that this place was leveled by Russian aerial and artillery assaults less than a decade ago. Pause. Wait to celebrate peace, the reinvented life: inside, behind the freshly painted, pale pink walls, hate and despair still perform their sad dance. The ruined hopes and dreams – Chechnya’s wounds stay open like the deep puddles reflecting high sky outside the enormous central mosque. No fancy, newly opened sushi bars, no propaganda posters portraying Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, on every other building, can hide Grozny’s loneliness.

Layer by layer, the “Grozny: Nine Cities” documentary project peels the veil off for you to uncover what is really going on in the complex life of the Chechen capital. Inspired by Thornton Wilder’s novel “Theophilus North,” the authors display various hidden and yet core aspects of human lives in post- war Grozny, the city built on top of the mass graves after two bloody wars.  The project’s nine themes (or nine cities) devoted to the nation that for centuries tried to break free from Moscow’s control, penetrate the unstoppable efforts that Chechens undertake in search of their own way to happiness.

The City of Memory visual chapter reflects the unfading history of nearly 300,000 human lives destroyed by the two recent wars. Moscow vowed to win over Chechen civilians by rebuilding their devastated society, but seemed mainly interested in its loyalty to the Kremlin and the City of Production, Chechnya’s oil.

The City of War shows Grozny, which translates as fearsome, has never stopped breathing wars, the violence finding new targets. With Russian tanks gone off its streets, Russian nationals are isolated into the City of Strangers. Chechen suicide bombers attacking Chechen public places, Chechen police detaining Chechen civilians for being involved with radical Islamic underground tear apart the City of War.

Dealing with violence, as with rain and snow, the city tries on its Sufi identity – new mosques, new Sharia laws emerge in ever block of the City of Religion, its streets being renamed after Suffi Sheiks. Uncovered women’s heads, even on street advertisements, must be shameful for Chechen men, as local television appeals to the City of Men. Men proud of their black BMWs, assault rifles and pointy, black shoes ban the appearance of unveiled women in public places. The City of Women, as a symphony devoted to beauty features the most attractive face of Grozny.

With more authority wired from Moscow, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel fighter famous for silencing whistle blowers, creates the City of Servants with overwhelming armies of his fans, stadiums full of people chanting his name and Ramzan News TV chronicles covering his daily routine. The idolizing of one leader has never been a traditional concept for Chechen society. Historically, many Chechen clans constructed stone towers on their own land, a symbol of stable defense and self-confidence. In today’s City of Normality people exhausted by over 15 year of vile fighting and self-destruction cover floors in their new brick homes with thick, bright colored carpets, throw feasts and dance their feet off at crowded weddings in their most beautiful clothes, grabbing the chance to enjoy the happy moments before more troubles roll into their fearsome city.

Text by Anna Nemtsova