C/O Berlin opens 'Josef Koudelka: Invasion / Exiles / Wall'
BERLIN.- C/O Berlin is presenting the exhibition entitled 'Invasion / Exiles / Wall' by Josef Koudelka from July 13th to September 10th, 2017.
Prague, Wenceslas Square, August 22, 1968: An arm strikes the picture. The watch on the wrist indicates the time. In the days before, tanks of the Warsaw Pact were rolled into the city, with the shrill sound of their chains creaking on the cobblestone streets. This photo by Josef Koudelka is a chronological part of his series invasion in which he shows the passionate resistance of his countrymen against the determination of the Red Army to stifle the democratic flame of the Prague Spring with bloody means. It is also the first photo in his book Exiles, published twenty years later by Robert Delpire.
Josef Koudelka, Czechoslovakia, 1968 © Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos
Koudelka's black and white photographs are both intimate and sensitive. His interest is in ethnic and social groups, threatened by expulsion or extinction, and often reflecting Koudelka's own nomadic way of life. Josef Koudelka is one of the few outstanding photographers whose pictures have decisively influenced the development of photography history in the second half of the 20th century through their penetrating, moving and authentic look.
With Josef Koudelka. Invasion / Exiles / Wall , C / O Berlin presents three major creative phases of the Magnum photographer. For the first time in almost thirty years, this exhibition is dedicated to an exhibition in Germany. It contains about 120 photographs and projections ranging from the Soviet occupation of his home country in 1968 to his time in exile and the large-scale photographs of the wall erected by Israel in the West Jordan. Unless otherwise stated, all exhibits are Silbergelatine Modern Prints. The exhibition was curated by Xavier Barral in collaboration with Sonia Voss and organized in partnership with the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam.
Josef Koudelka, Czechoslovakia, 1968 © Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos
Josef Koudelka was born in 1938, Czech, native Frenchman, lives in Paris and Prague. In 1971 he became a member of the renowned photo agency Magnum. After studying engineering at the Technical University of Prague, he worked as an aviation engineer and also photographed theater productions and Roma in Czechoslovakia. His photographic portraits of the invasion of Russian tanks in Prague in 1968 were awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal the following year; As the author was officially an "anonymous Prague photographer". Sixteen years later, after the death of his father, the photographs were attributed to him by name. In 1970 he asked for asylum in England and became stateless. In 1975, the New York Museum of Modern Art dedicated an exhibition to him - the same year that his book Gitans appeared. In 1988 Exiles followed. In 1986 he took part in the DATAR project to document the urban and rural landscapes of France. He began to work with a panoramic camera. In 1990 he returned to Czechoslovakia for the first time and photographed one of the most degraded landscapes in Europe, the so-called "black triangle". In 1999, he published chaos in the course of his exploration of the impact of today's human action on the landscape. In 2006, the first retrospective book was published, with the participation of Robert Delpire, in France and seven other countries. In 2008 Invasion Prague 68 was published in twelve countries. In 2011 a new edition of the book Gitans, revised and expanded, was published. In the same year, the exhibition Invasion Prague 68 was shown in Moscow. Josef Koudelka received numerous awards, including the French Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1987), the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award (1991) and the International Center of Photography Infinity Award (2004).
Josef Koudelka, Romania, 1994 © Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos
Josef Koudelka, Romania, 1994 © Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos
Josef Koudelka, East Jerusalem, 2009 © Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos