Artist:
-> Monika Orpik
Publisher:
-> Osrodek Postaw Twórczych (OPT)
About The Book
Stepping Out Into This Almost Empty Road looks at the moment of change when the most idyllic scenario becomes a horror of a political regime. From picking apples in the orchard to tear gas on the street. The book combines photographic material and texts that revolve around the permanent in-between state that is inseparable from the notion of migration. What happens when you’re forced to leave something behind and start anew elsewhere? What tools do you use to visualise the loss and the absence? How do you build your identity when the dialect you speak is rejected as a language? Despite being focused on stories of a specific community, the book makes visible what is universal in the context of transition.
With regards to the 2020 elections in Belarus and the subsequent wave of protests or the ongoing refugee crisis evolving on the Polish Eastern border, the questions on the notion of intersectional solidarity and the border are recurring in the public debate. The neighbours seen by the European citizens as strangers became familiar faces. Orpik decided to move away from Polish, in which the interviews were conducted, and leave English and Belarusian translation as the base of the book. It was important for her to make the stories accessible and at the same time refer to a language which for many symbolises Belarusian freedom. Publisher’s Info
About The Artist
Monika Orpik (b.1997) is an artist from Poland, based in Hamburg. Through the medium of photography and experimental processes in the darkroom, she tries to explore the subject of trauma of post-conflict communities and question the influence of art on the process of reconciliation. She holds a Bachalor of Arts in Photography from London College of Communication.
About The Publisher
Ośrodek Postaw Twórczych (OPT) is a municipal cultural institution. They organize concerts, exhibitions, meetings, occasional workshops, plein-air sessions and more. And they publish art books and release their own records. OPT is situated in Wroclaw, Poland.
