Martin Kollar is Slovakian. Not without humour and originating from a country with a strong photographic tradition, he has chosen the still image to uniquely document a nation changing from socialism to capitalism and the nationalist concerns rooted in this transformation.
Immediately drawn toward the happy nature of colour photography, he offers us an array of amusing snapshots of situations on the edge of absurdity. Simultaneously, he is keenly aware of how to keep the necessary distance to properly reveal the bizarre.
This completely disrespectful photography is nonetheless celebratory, while maintaining a serious critique of our lifestyle and the way we occupy space.
The Brussels-Capital region comprises 19 municipalities and Uccle is one of those. What makes this small town particular is its community of French residents: they are 8000, which represents 10% of Uccle’s population.
At a time when exile has become a post-election issue - mainly for tax reasons - Martin Kollar travelled to this small heaven, South of Brussels, conveniently located only an hour away from Paris by TGV.
Amongst exclusive private sports clubs, where old rich families rub shoulders with new fortunes by the swimming pool, and small streets paved with pavilions which are traded between 2 and 5 billions; people from Uccle are primarily looking for a « quality of life ».
Since 2004, Clermond-Ferrand city greets international photographers of great stature in a photographic residence on the city’s theme: “the landscape, background and inhabitants.”
In 2009, Slovak photographer Martin Kollar went in Clermond-Ferrand in order to propose his own vision of the city. He likes to track down comical, absurd or ironical situations. He’s interested in daily life and anonymous and tries to capture the particular atmosphere of the place he is.
Last February, Le Monde commissioned Martin Kollar to photograph a trip across six regions of France. In each one, he focused on an individual theme while maintaining his personal style mixing tragedy and comedy.
They are ordinary men in aprons worn over their uniforms, whose task is to feed the army. They take care of the operation of a giant stomach, a big hungry child with its moods – the Army. At first sight their function is not as significant as that of tank brigades, airforce units or paratroopers. But it is on their field kitchens (there is a reason why they are nicknamed “goulash-canons“) that the success of “armed stomachs“ – the soldiers, depends on. Without its cooks the army loses its strength and thus, its sense. As long as right filling ans emptying of stomachs is secured, so is secured the filling and emptying of military positions.
When most of us, ordinary people, think of the European Parliament, perhaps it is the enormous complex of glass buildings that first comes to our mind. Despite its image of transparency it is hard to see through, which makes our curiosity about what's going on inside, behind the curtains, only grow. As most of us have never been in a similar environment, we can only guess at all what's going on there, behind the scenes, and we build up our own virtual picture based on the official photo and TV images.
Through this work, I captured the world of those few who have the ambition and power to lead, persuade and play a role in the big changes which will in the end have direct impact on our...
Martin Kollar photographs the United-States in all their excesses. As always in this photographer’s work, the daily life suits perfectly that kind of scenes, tragic and comic by turns. With, or without humour, always sharp and scathing, he tells us about the situation of an America injured by Katerina and a social situation that is loosing itself. This country is also a huge theatre staging itself for a big media representation.
Rising above the city is a hill. Behind the hill are cinema studios. Jump over the fence and you’ll be walking in a Roman city. Belgrade. A factory of dreams. A trip through places where time is suspended. Hotel Jugoslavija, the Tito Museum, a swimming pool on the Danube – features of a golden age, replaced since by hard times.
I followed a course between reality and the dreams of an emotional and moving chaos. Taking the linking thread of cinema, I looked for the space between fiction and the real world. I photographed both extras from casting agencies and Belgrade residents in situations of apparent normality. A normality which slides suddenly into a moment of grace, an act in suspension.
Working mainly in colour, Martin Kollar stalks daily-life camical situations that fortunes of life change into games. In the style of Queneau and Prevert, he loves dealing with humor which he can create through photography. Christian Caujolle says about him : "His way of taking pictures, in a fully disrespectful manner, is as rejoincing as questionning on the way human-beings stage places, but he also targets our lifestyles."
Slovak Photographer Kollar is looking like everybody at that time towards China. As we could expect, Kollar's work is unexpected : in front of his lens, the whole country is accepting the role-playing and the proposed look.
At the extreme opposite of the Chinese cliches that are pouring and feeding our fantasies on this far land, Martin Kollar finds a subject at the height of his questioning. China can give the photographer this dose of off-the-wall poetry that is his signature.
Since 2004, Clermond-Ferrand city greets international photographers of great stature in a photographic residence on the city’s theme: “the landscape, background and inhabitants.”
In 2009, Slovak photographer Martin Kollar went in Clermond-Ferrand in order to propose his own vision of the city. He likes to track down comical, absurd or ironical situations. He’s interested in daily life and anonymous and tries to capture the particular atmosphere of the place he is. Publisher: Diaphane Editions (2011) 25 pages ISBN :2919077031
Nothing special
Révélé en France par sa longue enquête sur les dix pays concernés par l'élargissement de
l'Union européenne, Martin Kollar a suivi des études de cinéma à la faculté de Bratislava avant d'opter pour la photographie. Privilégiant la couleur, il traque dans la vie courante les situations cocasses, absurdes ou ironiques que les hasards du quotidien disposent en jeux de piste. A la manière de Queneau et Prévert, il affectionne et cultive une denrée rare dans le champ de la photographie : le sens de l'humour…
A propos de Martin Kollar, Christian Caujolle, directeur de l'Agence VU, écrit : « Sa photographie, parfaitement irrespectueuse, a quelque chose de jubilatoire et est en même temps une sérieuse interrogation sur la façon dont nous occupons l'espace, sur notre mode de vie. » Text by: Peter Kerekes Publisher: Actes Sud (2008) 104 pages Size: 22X28 CM ISBN :2742767428
Awards
2005 - Scam Roger Pic Award
2004 - Association 3P Award
2004 - Honourable mention at Leica-Oskar Barnack Award
2003 - Fujifilm Euro Press Award
2003 - World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass Award
“Révélé en France par sa longue enquête sur les dix pays concernés par l’élargissement de l’Union européenne, Martin Kollar tente d’aborder la tristesse du monde avec humour « pour mieux s’en approcher », dit-il. Primé en Arles en 2006, prix Roger-Pic en 2005, artiste en résidence à New York, exposé en Grèce, en Autriche, aux Etats-Unis…, cet éternel nomade, aujourd’hui basé à Prague, a sillonné les routes de Slovaquie, de Hongrie, de Pologne…, pour y débusquer des portraits de personnages à l’action indéfinissable, arrêtés dans un temps suspendu, incertain. La fraîcheur, le souffle...
For the 7th edition of the Biennale d'Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve, Jean-Marc Bodson, curator, gathered twenty exhibitions on the theme "A perfect world.". Among them, Martin Kollar's " Nothing Special ".
A 4L golf ball collector in Slovenia, a Polish family coming together to bless their camper van before setting off on holiday, a Hungarian runner who may have once been a weightlifter... The East has switched over to a second life after the fall of communism and is giving itself up to a new culture of leisure. Martin Kollar (Slovakian) has been on a trip around the former Eastern Bloc...
Photophnompenh Festival
He is Slovak, he doesn’t lack humor and, in a country with a strong tradition of photography, he has chosen the fixed image document, in a very special way, the ongoing transformation when the transition from socialism to capitalism was coupled with questionings about nationalism. Immediately, he opted for color, working it with happiness, to offer us a collection of mocking snapshots on situations almost absurd, but from which he can distance himself to reveal their strangeness. His photography is completely disrespectful and is also somehow jubilant. At the same...
Nothing Special (Mons en Baroeul) From 2009-06-20 to 2009-07-12
A 4L golf ball collector in Slovenia, a Polish family coming together to bless their camper van before setting off on holiday, a Hungarian runner who may have once been a weightlifter...
The East has switched over to a second life after the fall of communism and is giving itself up to a new culture of leisure. Martin Kollar (Slovakian) has been on a trip around the former Eastern Bloc countries which, since 1st May 2004, have become members of the European Union.
“Bombarded with advertising they never used to have, the people dream of more of everything, more capitalism, more...
Révélé en France par sa longue enquête sur les dix pays concernés par l’élargissement de l’Union européenne, Martin Kollar né en 1971 en Slovaquie, a suivi des études de cinéma à la faculté de Bratislava avant d’opter pour la photographie. La fraîcheur, le souffle revigorant qui émane de sa curiosité photographique, bousculent les visions débilitantes et ressassées des ex-pays de l’Est pour proposer une sociologie joyeuse et décalée des mutations en cours.Privilégiant la couleur, il traque dans la vie courante les situations cocasses, absurdes ou ironiques que les hasards du quotidien...
Nothing Special (Montreuil sur Brèche) From 2008-05-03 to 2008-07-13
'Nothing special' or the representation of the East european middle classes."My visions sticks on the ordinary people during their ordinary moments, i mean when they are freed from their responsabilities and they move into their own world. They became for me then an ideal object of study."
2006 Finalist of European Publisher Awards, Arles - France 2005 SCAM Rodger Pic award 2004 Oscar Barnac Award,honorable mention - Germany 2004 Czech-Press-Photo: 2nd prize, in category –Everyday Life 2003 FujiFilm Euro Press Photo Awards, national level: 1st prize 2002 Mio Photo Award Osaka Japan ,Honorary prize 2002 Backlight Award,Tampere - Finland 2001 FujiFilm Euro Press Photo Awards, national level: 1st prize 2000 Czech-Press-Photo: 2nd prize, in category Everyday Life 2-prize, in category Art
Expositions
2008 Le Château d'Eau Toulouse - France 2008 Diaphane-La Grange - France 2008 European Works, Cité de l'Architecture, Paris and Brussels 2007 MOCA Shanghai, Unseen - China 2007 Recontres d'Arles, Gallery VU - France 2007 Collezionami art project, Bari - Italy 2007 F/stop Leipzig Germany 2006 Month of photography Athens Batagianni Gallery 2006 Month of Photography Krakow 2006 Month of photography Thessaloniki 2006 Maison Européenne de la Photographie – Paris - France 2006 Month of photography Vienna, - Austria
Parutions
Portfolio Nothing Special, Photo
Défilé de mode à Paris, Le Monde
Army Cooks, Le Monde 2
L’apprentissage du risque, Télégraph Magazine
Les Flamands, Le Monde 2
Présentateurs TV, Ventiquattro
Bibliographie
2008 Nothing Special, Ed Actes Sud
2008 European Works, group publication, Filigranes Editions
Corporate
Colas
Comté des Régions de l’Union Européenne
Festival de Cannes
Parlement Européen
Pivovar
Valeo
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