OSTRA / Echoes of Utopia

OSTRA Collodium / 87,2 x 120 and 116,85 x 160 cm / Edition of 6 and 3 / Printed on Canson Edition Etching rag 310 gsm / Signed on a Certificate of Authenticity / Includes BKH-fee 5%

"Echoes of Utopia
2025-

In the quiet, wind-swept landscapes of the former Yugoslavia, concrete structures rise from the earth like otherworldly monuments from another time - shaped by the dreams of a country that no longer exists.
Once symbolic monuments of collective unity, progress, and a utopian vision, these world war 2 memorials stand in varied states of decay, but still radiating a solemn power.
‘Echoes of Utopia’ explores these monuments from an entirely new perspective through the eyes of the almost forgotten method of collodion wetplate photography from the 1850`s.

These fine art photographs are analogically made from metal plates coated with silver nitrate, exposed in large-format cameras, and developed on site in a makeshift darkroom.
The results are imperfect chemical processes unveiling ghostly organic anomalies that are not corrected but embraced, echoing the expressionistic nature of exposing human fragility to concrete brutality.

Its unique quality and inherent unpredictability, stands in stark contrast to the uncompromising solidity of Brutalist architecture. Where concrete imposes, collodion flows. Where Brutalism is monumental, wet plates are intimate, ephemeral. The result is a haunting visual dialectic inviting conversation between permanence and fragility, ideology and entropy, memory and myth.

This body of work does not seek to document or archive these monuments but to transform them into visual elegies exploring themes of impermanence and memory.
In contrast to our current age of technology, the alchemical process of collodion recontextualizes these monuments —not as relics of propaganda, nor as obsolete war memorials, but as poetic thresholds between past and present, utopia and aftermath. They become luminous apparitions, suspended in time, reflecting both the grandeur of their original intent and the melancholy of their abandonment.

My intention is to invite conversation exploring memory, architecture, ideology, and the beauty of ruin. Included in this also lies the concept of unity, freedom, and sacrifice against the face of oppression.
My intention is to invite conversation exploring the impermanence of power, the fragility of memory the power of human endurance and the beauty of ruin."