Benjamin Beker

Monuments

5 September - 8 November 2009

Benjamin Beker was the winner of ArtSway Open 08. For his exhibition at ArtSway, Beker will exhibit his War and Liberation Monuments and Interiors of Power series. These two bodies of work were attempts to ‘de-historicise’ various Serbian monuments and interiors, removing them from their usual context.

Beker is exhibiting a new series of work, based on research into the architecture and politics of building projects constructed on dried marshland in New Belgrade, in the former Yugoslavia, in the 1950s and 1960s - inspired by original plans, drawings and images for a proposed ‘modernist city’.

In the planning and construction of New Belgrade modernist concepts of the functional city were appropriated, and primarily Le Corbusier’s ideas of a city as an idealised image of a new social model. It was planned primarily for representative government buildings but has also become home to huge housing estates. These consist of parallel linear buildings, simply referred to as ‘the blocks’ and were built for tens of thousands of people.

The final series of images features digitally manipulated photographs the artist took whilst in Serbia; the artist will isolate them and place them in a fictional context, stripping them of their environment. They will be a mixture of fact and fiction – dark socialist housing estates will be transformed into toy-like objects. Beker is interested in the way that political events and Post-Communist Capitalism has affected the urban planning of cities in the former Eastern Bloc.

ArtSway’s annual Open exhibition usually attracts an entry over 300 artists. For Open 08, 30 artists were selected for exhibition, with Benjamin Beker being awarded the prize of a solo exhibition at ArtSway. The selectors for Open 08 were: Camilla Brown of The Photographers’ Gallery, ArtSway Director Mark Segal, ArtSway Curator Peter Bonnell and Open 07 winner Laura Green.

Benjamin Beker Biography

Benjamin Beker was born in 1976 in Bonn, Germany and grew up in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and in Hong Kong, China. On returning to Belgrade he studied Photography at the BK Art Academy and graduated in 2001. Beker moved to London in 2005 and a year later undertook an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art.

He received the National Magazine Award in 2007, and his final exhibition piece War and Liberation Monument Installation, received the Painters and Stainers Prize, RCA Society and Thames & Hudson Art Book Prize, whilst being short-listed for the Conran Award.

Beker’s work has been published in the last edition of the Specialten Magazine and in the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward ‘08 Catalogue. He now lives and works in London and has been exhibiting in various group shows such as the Farmers Market at Handel Street Project Gallery and Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed at The Photographers’ Gallery in London.

For more information visit: www.benjaminbeker.com

Exhibition Associated Events:

Private View and Gallery Talk: Benjamin Beker in Conversation with Peter Bonnell

Saturday 5 September 2009 at 3pm

ArtSway Open 08 winner Benjamin Beker will discuss his recent research trips to Serbia and his new body of photographic work examining housing developments in Communist era Belgrade.

FREE: Booking Essential.

Curator Talk

Saturday 19 September 2009 at 2pm

Join ArtSway Curator Peter Bonnell for an informal tour and discussion of Benjamin Beker’s exhibition.

Portfolio Day

Friday 9 October 2009, 10am - 4pm

Ten half-hour slots for artists from all backgrounds for critiques, portfolio reviews and career advice from ArtSway Director Mark Segal and Curator Peter Bonnell.

COST: £5 per person. Booking Essential.

Art in Context: Yugoslavia and Present-day Serbia

Saturday 24 October 2009 at 2pm
Marko Attila Hoare will talk about the history of Yugoslavia in the Titoist period after World War II, focussing in particular on the Yugoslav and Serbian capital, Belgrade, and tracing the story up to the present day.

FREE: Booking Essential.

To book a place on any of the above events please contact Jack Lewis on 01590 682260 (ext.6) or email: jack.lewis@artsway.org.uk