Evelyn Bencicova
Beyond What is Photographed
Being born in Bratislava just a few days before Slovakia became an independent republic, Evelyn Bencicova could still experience the heritage left by the Socialist past. It bestowed her with important evidence, which she could base her comprehension of postmodernity upon. With her vivid imagination and great ability of creating stories in her mind, Evelyn converted it into her own visual language, giving the beholder a hint by offering to conceive a unique interpretation of her artworks. Evelyn’s first major solo exhibition, Merror (error + mirror) took place at the Fotografiska museum in Stockholm in 2018. It constituted a fusion of the conceptual and the visual, leaving the audience with ambiguous feelings, evoked by human bodies, animals, architectonic structures, fashion, portraits and gasmasks. The artist appears to be unique in her ability ‘to meet other people’, showing a genuine interest in her objects and their communication with the world in the context of her eerie artworks. Her photographs create an emotional withdrawal from reality by intensifying its errors and opening up a mysterious tier, inducing an experience of intellectual turbulence. Juxtaposing human and architecture into an ideological hereditary integrity, the series Asymptote, which Evelyn created in collaboration with an award-winning filmmaker and director, Adam Csoka Keller and sound technician, Arielle Esther, constitutes a “complex of illustrations of the era and a kind of eye-opener especially for the younger generation”. Such bricolage creates a deep reflection over both of the artworks and the reality that they seem to be representing, placed in the context of individual perception. Meanwhile, the Victorian paleness of the models posing in long Dior dresses enhances the postmodern discourse of the disruptive power of fashion and thereby, creating an intellectual interplay between the context in the photographs and the reality outside. Seemingly, Evelyn’s photographs justify and incriminate, distort and ascend, always leaving a presumption that something exists through the narrowly selective transparency that each piece provides. The artist tells us that the process of creating a photograph is an event in itself - an artistic process, where every sense is articulated through the omnipresence of the camera lens. And if you look accurately, you may not see the end but you may see the future.
Could you describe how you have found your way in to the world of photography & visionary art?
Even though I answer this question a lot, in order to not be bored with my own answer, I always try to think about it again, to go deeper in memories and analysis of what I remember as first steps of my creative expression. Perceiving photography as a medium rather than my main interest, the journey started much earlier than I picked up the camera. Visual sensitivity initially evolves in the mind, then is released, which is infinite. Every day during the obligatory resting hours when I was in kindergarten I was unable to sleep. I used to look at an object and observe it, study it in detail and create imaginary stories ranging from probable to abstract. Later I managed to persuade the teachers to let me draw instead of rest. That is probably the earliest memory of feeling a sudden urge to capture by visualisation. We lived in a huge housing estate which was ironically called “prison” as the view from the windows was towards the inside of the block facing the windows of other neighbours. My favourite pastime was to observe with binoculars this partly uncontrolled, scenery of many lives, in which I could always move my glance and shift the narrative. All these rectangular shaped windows are quite photographic, the details that fit in the frame actually a bigger picture. It the end, I always knew more than what I’d seen. I imagined the whole flat and the entire reality behind the walls, my fantasies always worked in pictures. At the age of eighteen I underwent eye surgery to correct my sight, it had been blurry and imperfect for many years and I relied on glasses to see properly. After that I realised what it really meant to see in detail. It felt like coming from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, from certain blindness and darkness into the light. My imagination had been compensating and suddenly a clear vision appeared. At this moment I fully discovered the world around me in a visual sense and that amazement has stayed with me ever since. My relationship to photography is currently a complicated one. I am not able to clearly define my role in the creative process and gradually I have given up trying to set certain rules and boundaries. The photography that I am interested in, is not so much about taking pictures but rather creating a world, starting a dialogue or thought process of the viewer. It’s about the way of finding a balance and connection of conceptual and visual, creating image, which contains a story.
Who are the people in your photographs?
This differs for each project and I usually don’t work with complete strangers. Most of the people I photograph are friends, people
I know or want to know better… those who I feel can relate to the project. Every shoot is an exchange of energy, and in order to create a synergetic atmosphere, where it can flow freely, I prefer to choose those, who feel comfortable in the role and are not afraid to be challenged. I like to work with people who are also mentally present so that they can understand and add to the story. In some projects, the models are themselves, in others they play a character or become a part of a bigger composition. I don’t have one way of working or selecting people; every shooting requires different approach and that is what I try to develop in the process.
What is a human body to you, really? Is it a part of the human being as an intellectual unit and an identity or it is an admirable tool, both physically and ideologically?
This depends largely on the context of the project. So, I would say that human body can be both and all of that. Sometimes, the body is captured as a part of visual fascination; in other case it represents the natural, pure and human. The same body can be eroticised, celebrated, devalued. It can shift from a subject to an object. It all depends on the way of looking, seeing and capturing. When we look at an example of Asymptote, the body is not individualized, but takes part in forming an architecture of the political system. This project is reflecting on the topic of socialism in former Czechoslovakia and its influence on the current state of society.
Asymptote uses architectonic sites that are authentic to the era of Socialism. Places, former symbols of power, and greatness, elevated in order to make the person feel small. Today they stand still, stripped of essential purpose, abandon or forgotten like gravestones of their former glory. Asymptote merges past and present, by reflecting on one at the time of the other. The basis of the project lies in a historical foundation that collaborates with a fictional scenario to blur the lines between reality and memory. Authentic testimonies and archive materials are reinterpreted by contemporary digital language of a fiction based on truth. All body form in the project is folded within the space to shape a coherent geometrical composition, a symbol of the regime itself. People create a pattern. Each one is stripped off their own individuality to become a unified form, creating a society where every difference is an anomaly in the system. This recalls a memory of shooting the Spartakiada scene with a group of young gymnasts jumping simultaneously to create a star-like pattern. I could see one of the girls being tired and slower and found myself urging her to be faster, adjust to overall tempo. At one moment I stopped and realised that I was doing exactly what I wanted to criticise, not seeing her as a person with certain limits and needs, but just as a part of a perfectly working machinery. It’s then that you have to ask yourself, “What is perfection? Is difference a flaw?” We can also get caught in structures which weaken one’s own ability to think outside the box and automatise our reasoning. This is danger of every system, not just a political one. Asymptote of a curve is a such straight line, which by coming ever closer to the curve, tends towards infinity but will never touch the curve. It is the endless desire and longing, belief in and fight for future which is not approachable in reality. Or is it simply a lie? Can you base beliefs and lives on a collective lie? The goal is not only to reflect on the past, but the most importantly is to address the current state of society and its values.
And concerning Notes of Hysteria?
In contrast with Asymptote, the Notes on Hysteria project shows a different exploration, a story of generalising and demonising the female body as abnormal, sick or evil. Hysteria, as attributed to women, is a history of negligence and pain. It is a history of male authority, pitting a woman against her own mysterious and unruly body through religious, medical and psychological gazes. The series reflects on various “curing methods” of this mysterious diagnosis, as well as on use of photography in trying to categorise what a “mad woman” looks like. What I show is what is false. The story of this project goes beyond what is photographed. Like many other works, it has a personal layer, which might not be visible for every viewer but is incredibly important for why this work was created. I myself was struggling with deep refusal and disconnect from own body and I researched the topic of hysteria, female possession and sexuality. During this process, I experienced a strong intensity of shame, desire and pain, which often transformed into physical sensations. When the project exhibited at the Pathology Room of Sanatorium in Berlin, I realised that something was missing. By photographing, interpreting and exposing someone else's body, I put myself into the position of the observer, doctor, judge and executioner. While in fact, I wanted to confront my own traumas and fears. I spontaneously decided to perform, and placed my body under
direct and uncomfortable view of all visitors. Typically an unthinkable situation, the improvised effort transformed vulnerability into strength, pure emotion, it spoke without words, with a clear inner voice and intention. After many years of working with mostly female bodies, I felt like I finally found the courage to confront this personally.
People never smile in your fashion photographs. Why? Is it symbolic?
I guess, it’s not the rule. I’ve already seen a big change since our last discussion two years ago. Fashion that has been always aiming for a feeling of distance and seriousness, is beginning to look more inclusive, natural and more human. For myself, a smile does not necessarily evoke happiness and positivity. In contemporary visual culture, highly influenced by marketing and commerce, a smile might be seen more as a mask, something we put on forcefully for others, with the product in hand. These codes always change, and I love smile, if it’s an honest one, there’s no need to make “cheese” for the camera. Generally, I prefer depth to fake excitement and often ask my models to be in thoughts, to focus on what is happening in their mind because somehow that projects into a whole expression. Despite that, I get accused of, or confronted with the fact that I create upsetting, grim or negative images. I disagree, as my intention is to create something which will disturb the viewer from only looking and provoke seeing and thinking. The outcome of the thought does not have to be negative. The scale of good and bad, happy and sad, deep and shallow, is quite wide and highly subjective. I feel like the image always reflects the viewer as much as the creator.
Could you tell us about the project Rite? What is it about and what is the future of this project?
Rite was created as a collaboration with Culture Device, Nowness and a team of creatives. Adam Csoka Keller as director, produced by Stink Films, costume and set design, and art direction design by Masha Reva, Igor Smitka as director of photography, Daniel Vais
& David Pickering, and myself shooting the still photography. Culture Device is a group of dancers, performers and artists with Down Syndrome who challenge prejudices and help change attitudes towards people affected by the syndrome. The Rite was created during my artist residence in London at the Royal Opera House which was finalised with a reinterpretation of the ballet The Rite
of Spring (1913) by Igor Stravinsky, that subsequently constituted a base for both film and photography. A series of portraits captures the energy of the performance with the uniqueness of each individual in character and professionals, but also as humans. Through the photographs I simultaneously observed both streams of courage and moments of doubt, stretches of joy and heaviness of worry, and a wide spectrum of beauty in all its complexity. The artists of Culture Device have a message to share and they want the world to look and listen, to come closer and join in. They want to show their faces without people turning away. They don’t wish to hide their medical condition, nor do they want to be defined by that. Like everyone, they want to be celebrated for their strengths and understood in moments of vulnerability. Together we confronted prejudices, stigmas and conventions, heading towards a more diverse and inclusive future in the art world as well as in everyday life. The project was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London as a part of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, as well as the Glitch in the System showcase by Vogue Italia in Milan. It was also published in i-d, Vice and many other cultural and social platforms. The goal is to present it to a wide audience and become a part of the paradigm shift in both fashion and art in the direction of inclusivity and acceptance, in new forms of creative expressions.
What are you working on now? Both in fashion and in art?
I am working on several projects, both personal and commissioned. In general, I do not like to share anything before it’s completed, not out of secrecy or exclusivity simply because I’m never sure where the process will lead me. Usually the only point in which I can judge or describe the project, is at the end of it, and sometimes that is even too early. I am constantly working in progress, always developing and never settling, and so is my work.