instagram: @bookelab
This event introduces new books by authors published under the curatorship of the independent publishing platform Book[e]lab, founded in 2020 by Olga Matveeva and Jenya Yahina. Working at the intersection of contemporary art and photobook design, Book[e]lab focuses on limited-edition artist’s books in which visual narrative and material form are conceived as a unified artistic statement.
The platform supports experimental approaches to the book as an artistic medium, exploring the relationship between image, structure, and tactility. Each project is developed with close
attention to the physical qualities of the book — its sequencing, materials, and printing processes — alowing the concept to unfold not only through images and texts but also through the object itself.
Through colaboration with artists, photographers, designers, as wel as paper manufacturers and printing technologists, Book[e]lab creates a space for dialogue between artistic vision and production expertise. This process foregrounds the book as a site of experimentation, where editorial thinking, design, and material choices become integral to the work.
The presentation brings together a selection of newly published artist’s books in which the concept is not only articulated but physicaly embodied in the book’s structure and design.
Each book functions as an autonomous work, where content and form are closely intertwined, expanding the possibilities of the photobook as both an artistic medium and a carefuly crafted
object.
Artists:
Alexey Belov. Consolation B. (2026)
Sveta Kaverina. The Garden of Earthly Delights (2025)
Natalia Ershova. [Im] Planting (2025)
Maya Nesterenko. Afrersun We`re Goung To The River (2025)
Anya Belka. A Book About Break Dance (2025)
Alexander Baranovsky. Vague Feeling (2026)
Katerina Kouzmitcheva. Sorry for the Lack of Contact (2025)
In The Horses Are Coming, Christina Werner focuses on animal symbolism as a main visual and staging strategy of National Socialism: Eagles, lions, horses and sheepdogs functioned in the Third Reich as symbols of strength, purity and order – codes that are still effective today: When Viktor Orbán presents Austria with two horses as a “sign of friendship” in 2022 or Herbert Kickl calls for the launch of a mounted police force, it becomes clear how animal motifs continue to be used as strategic symbols in right-wing and authoritarian narratives.
The work uses the technique of collage to visualise ideological codes by fragmenting and rearranging historical image sources. It is thus in the tradition of political art, such as the photomontages of John Heartfield, who worked visually against the rise of fascism in the 1930s.
Nike Bekemeier, Curatorial Assistence, Westlicht Vienna
Christina Wener
Born in 1976 in Baar (Switzerland), grew up in Baden near Vienna (Austria) and lives and works in Vienna (Austria)
In her artistic practice, she analyzes political visual strategies, mechanisms of visual power, and their dissemination through the media. She focuses on global developments such as the rise of neo-fascism and the role of public space as a place of commemoration. The archive is becoming increasingly important as a source of knowledge and starting point for many of her works.
From 2007 to 2013, she studied photography and moving image with Tina Bara and media art with Alba D’Urbano at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig (Germany).
Works have been exhibited at venues including the Deichtorhallen – House of Photography, Hamburg (D); Lentos Museum, Linz (A); Mattatoio, Rome (I); Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (D); National Gallery, Prague (CZ); Fotogalerie Wien (A); the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (USA); the Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (A); the Galerie Photon-Center for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana (SI); and the Bauhaus Museum Dessau (D).
Her works are included in the following collections: the Austrian Federal Collection, the Vienna Museum, the Collection of the State of Lower Austria, the Lentos Museum Linz, and the Vienna Chamber of Labor.
www.christinawerner.com
Instagram: werner.christina
This exhibition was made possible with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum Belgrade.
What would happen if the little toy soldiers from our childhood could tell the story of a country?
We invite you to discover an original and thought-provoking perspective on Cuban reality through the photography of artists Lidice and Yamel Santana. In this artistic photography exhibition, they use the iconic Toy Story soldiers as a visual metaphor to reflect on everyday life, resilience, and the many stories lived in Cuba. Through carefully constructed scenes, the images portray daily life, tensions, and contradictions that are part of the island.
Each image transforms seemingly simple scenes into powerful narratives full of symbolism, where playfulness blends with the social and the human. A creative proposal that invites viewers to observe, question, and engage in dialogue about reality from another perspective. Each image mixes memory, play, nostalgia, and reflection, creating a visual universe where the small becomes immense and where every photograph invites us to feel, question, and look beyond the obvious.
Come discover how art can turn a toy into a story—and a story into a unique experience, blending pop culture and social critique to encourage us to see things from a different perspective.
@lidi_sabinera
@yamsfocsa
The project Swimming Pool by Icelandic photographer Bragi Þór Jósefsson explores the relationship between architecture, landscape, and everyday life in Iceland through one of the most characteristic spaces in the country: swimming pools. Beyond their practical function, these spaces become places of encounter, observation, and quiet social interaction, where the intimate and the collective coexist in a natural way.
Through a clean, silent, and carefully composed visual language, Jósefsson documents these environments by paying close attention to geometry, colour, light, and human presence. The images convey a strong sense of calm and contemplation, while also speaking about Icelandic identity and the relationship between people, water, climate, and community. In these photographs, the pools become small stages where everyday life takes on a sculptural and almost minimalist dimension.
Jósefsson’s work exists at the intersection of documentary photography and the photography of constructed landscapes, where space is not simply a background but the true protagonist. Repetition of forms, the presence of steam, the contrast between cold exterior environments and warm water, and the way people inhabit these spaces together create a subtle narrative about how a society relates to its environment.
Bragi Þór Jósefsson was part of the Belgrade Photo Month programme last year with his project Iceland Defense Force, in which he explored the remains of the American military presence in Iceland and its marks on the landscape. While that project focused on memory, geopolitics, and territory, Swimming Pools approaches a more everyday and social aspect of the country, showing another side of Iceland and its visual culture.
Together, these projects reveal the artist’s interest in landscape as a carrier of history, identity, and ways of life, as well as his ability to transform seemingly ordinary spaces into images filled with meaning, silence, and presence.
Welcome to the ethereal realm of color, light, and narrative whispers captured through the lens of contemporary visionaries. As a tribute to the pioneering spirit of Saul Leiter, whose profound exploration of early color photography revolutionized the medium.
Steeped in Leiter’s legacy, “Tribute to Saul Leiter Early Color” invites you on an immersive journey through the kaleidoscopic landscapes of human emotion, urban solitude, and fleeting moments frozen in time. Inspired by Leiter’s iconic book “Early Color,” this exhibition unites the talents of nine diverse photographers from around the globe, each offering a unique perspective on the interplay between color, composition, and the essence of existence.
Drawing upon Leiter’s masterful use of abstraction, ambiguity, and serendipitous beauty, these contemporary artists harness the power of the visual medium to weave intricate narratives that transcend the ordinary. From the vibrant streets of bustling metropolises to the quiet whispers of nature’s symphony, their photographs serve as windows into alternate realities, inviting viewers to lose themselves in the mesmerizing dance of hues and shadows.
Through a curated selection of images, ” Tribute to Saul Leiter Early Color ” celebrates the timeless allure of photography as a medium for introspection, connection, and collective storytelling. As we pay homage to Saul Leiter’s groundbreaking vision, we invite you to embark on a visual odyssey that transcends borders, cultures, and generations, illuminating the universal language of human experience.
Join us as we explore the echoes of the past, the hues of the present, and the infinite possibilities of the future, all captured within the delicate embrace of early color photography.
The 8 photographers that are part of the exhibition are:
Aaron Reyes https://www.instagram.com/tyndaro/
Alex Fokin https://www.instagram.com/fokinman/
Cristopher Vrsalovic https://www.instagram.com/satyrcam/
Katarina Trifunovic https://www.instagram.com/katarinatrifunovic/
Kirill Osipov https://www.instagram.com/okiris.photo
Rebecca Uliczka https://www.instagram.com/rebekunstphoto/
Sam L. Street https://www.instagram.com/sam.and.street/
Theo Belafonte https://www.instagram.com/theobelafonte
Zeynep Ayta https://www.instagram.com/aytazeynep
This is the second time that Бартcелона POP UP has organised a tribute exhibition to one photo book. The first tribute occurred last year when we organised an international group exhibition that referenced the unique photo book “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” by Ed Ruscha. The results were very satisfying and we decided to take the opportunity of arranging a similar exhibition as part of the 1st edition of BPM book, 2022. The selected book for this exhibition will be: “Summer Nights, Walking” by Robert Adams.
“Summer Nights, Walking” is an essential photo book that has been hailed as a classic. The first edition, simply titled “Summer Nights”, was published by Aperture in 1985, and included 38 images of nocturnal scenes taken in the region of Longmont and the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
A re-edited version of the book was co-published with Aperture in 2009 and titled “Summer Nights, Walking”. For this revision Robert Adams added an extra 39 previuosly unpublished photos. May 2022 will see a new enlarged version of the book published by Steidl, an international publisher of photobooks based in Germany.
For our tribute, we did not ask for photos that were taken in Colorado, or for square format photos, but we wanted to keep the the theme of black and white photography and the essential spirit of the book, but with a wider geographic spread.
This exhibition includes work by:
Dany Vigil (El Salvador) @danyvigil.lab
Dario D’Alessio (Italy) @dario_dales
David Alexis Jainz Aguiñaga (Mexico)
Max Klebl (Austria) @maxklebl
Olivera Radmanović (Serbia) @olja_radmanovic
Telmo Pinto (Portugal) @telmojgp
Ray Knox (Great Britain) @rayknox_photography
The exhibition In Trance We Trust, developed from the book of the same title, is the outcome of a twelve-year collaboration (2003–2014) between Nenad Racković and Srđan Veljović—a sustained exchange that functions as a dialogue, translating Racković’s bodily and performative practices into the language of photography.
Formally, the photographs engage with Racković’s artistic behavior, which may be understood across four interrelated modes:
performative acts—a lexicon of corporeal gestures;
the skater identity;
the clubber identity;
and practices of hygiene and purification.
Together, these articulate his artistic method as a form of intervention within—and upon—public space.
In translating the phenomenology of Racković’s practice into a sequence of images, the work foregrounds the intensity of expression, seeking to grasp what lies beyond the visible—its impulse, its cause. It considers how narrative operates: how it touches us, and how it speaks of community.
The deeply intimate and the traumatic surface with urgency, seizing attention and generating sensations of a similar order, drawing in participants irrespective of their will. What unfolds is a raw interplay of unstable, undefined boundaries.
The narrative constructed through these images emerges almost automatically—through recognition—as a kind of play between two agents. It does not represent reality as such; rather, it enters it from the other side, from a position outside itself. It provokes and expands the field of imagination.
It educates.
The best example is a bad example.
Nenad Racković, multimedia artist, was born in Belgrade in 1967. He studied acting at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts.
His first poem was published in 1984 in the literary magazine Književna reč and he had his first exhibition in SKC (Student Cultural Centre in Belgrade) in 1985. He was the editor and host of the Radio B92 iconic program The Rhythm of the Heart (1990–1998), and was a regular contributor to the magazine Beorama (1995–1998).
He had 18 solo and over 20 group exhibitions; he acted in three films: The Fall of Rock and Roll (1990), The Black Bomber (1991), Marble Ass (1995) and in a television film The Last Dadaist Show (TV Novi Sad, 1992); performed the theater show Saint Nick, Nicholas Edward Cave – Life and Relationships (Bitef Theater 1992); and enacted a number of performances.
Aside from the numerous essays in literary magazines, he has also published six novels: Aspirin (2002), Book of Recipes (2002), The Insurmountable Story (2006), The Fifth Season (2017), The Bible (2019), Slime and Bile (2021).
The independent art association Remont published Nenad Johnny Racković’s monograph in 2018.
Srđan Veljović, photographer and conceptual documentarian, was born in Belgrade in 1968. Graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade. He has been working in collaboration with a number of cultural institutions: Student Cultural Center, Center for Cultural Decontamination, National Library of Serbia, Youth Center Belgrade.
He worked as an associate at Radio B92. Documented the Belgrade club scene with Apgrade collective.
He has published photos in printed and electronic media: X Zabava, Beorama, Feral Tribune, Peščanik, Komunalinks, Playboy, Haaretz, Dazed Digital.
He was a member of the Led Art collective.
His work was exhibited in all of the former Yugoslav states, then in Germany, Albania, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Italy and the United States.
He has published three books: The Nineties (2020) and Petrovaradin, Casual Reflections on Time (2020), In Trance We Trust, (2022).
The talk will be conducted in English.
Today, independent publishing in photography is no longer a choice or a strategy — it has become a necessity.
Through my publication “Kultura Fotografije”, I will try to show why this necessity might actually be the best thing that could have happened to us as artists.
Vladeta is a zine presenting the work of Serbian and international authors whose work explores the cultural memory and visual heritage of Serbia through a personal and documentary approach in the field of photography. The publication brings unpublished and overlooked projects into the spotlight, delves into archives, and offers insight into the contributions of photographers from different generations, placing them within a broader cultural and historical context. In doing so, it fosters a dialogue between past and present, offering new perspectives on visual narratives that shape and reflect the region’s identity.
Exhibition realised in collaboration with the Festival Grenze Arsenali Festival, with the essential support of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Belgrado, and book published by Studio Faganel.
The story is the result of hours of walking, observing, and listening to all the living elements that make up the island: the land, the stone, the people. In this precise order, I sought to build a series of events that have characterized and made this place unique. I started from the land that men dug to bring the stone to light. I arrived at the land that is now preserved in the cavities that give rise to the underground gardens. In this place, the real past and present blend with facts, legends, possible truths, and distant mythologies: the literary contribution of Marilena Renda is essential in conveying these words, as she was invited to participate in the project by drafting unpublished texts. Photography and words translate and strengthen the meaning of the cavity, understood as a generative space.
Alessandra Calò
Word and image have always been in a mutually generative dialogue. The image evokes absence, while the word brings it to life and sustains it. The twentieth century turned this into a drama – a creative conflict over what forms, settles, and becomes the artisan or material of an imaginary. The installation at the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade prompts the relationship between iconographic text and narrative text in the realm of myth, where “high” and “low” vie for the kingdom of storytelling and memory. A tale without an incipit, development, or conclusion unfolds linearly along the walls of the room, without interruption. The visitor is on an empty island. This allows every “once upon a time” to begin anew from the perspective of the frontal viewer, reflecting in the circularity of their own archetype, whether celestial or maritime, earthly or divine. Here, texts emerge from the image like the voice of a sibyl from the cavity plunged into the unspeakable. The culture of syntax distills the wild chaos of nature. In the disordered secret garden, the voice of reason gathers the remnants of ancient regenerative metamorphoses. A fierce darkroom, magma and repository of found iconographic fossils, made visible only by the hand, the craftsmanship bent to the reasons of the artistic process, like ghosts: before the final immersion in the popular archive.
Simone Azzoni
* Galleries and exhibition spaces retain the right to change the date and time of the exhibitions and other events
