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Day #229/365: A Bear’s Ghosts…

File under: Trails and Influences: Recent Explorations. Case #28/52.

I recently wandered amongst former structures of/connected to conflict which were now being recovered by nature and/or in part semi-forgotten (see Day #228/365)… which lead me indirectly to the below images.

They are part of a series/book project by Jan Kempenaers called Spomenik; the structures themselves were created behind the once Iron Curtain as memorials. Now apparently they are largely abandoned.

There is a (brutalist) beauty and fascination to them, they seem to have tumbled from both the future and the past; despite the all too real history which inspired them, they now seem almost like impossible fictions or props from a filmic story.

In a way they remind me of Charles Frégers photographs of folkloric ritual costumes (see Day #69/365), in that they seem to be a version of something which has been taken to an almost unreal or surreal other/further degree.

Beyond that I think I shall let them speak for themselves…

Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country-5 (2)

Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country (2) Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country (3) Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country (4) Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country (5) Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country (6) Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country-3 Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country-4  Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country-5 Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country-6 Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country-7 Jan Kempenaers-Spomenik-A Year In The Country-8

 

 

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