VIENNA.- With Jitka Hanzlová–Identities, the ALBERTINA Museum presents the first museum exhibition of one of the most distinguished female photographers of the present day. In 1982, Jitka Hanzlová fled the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic for West Germany. She went on to study Visual Communication with a focus on photography in Essen, where she still lives today.

First museum exhibition in Austria

Jitka Hanzlová's work is characterized by a subtle yet consistent examination of the relationship between man and his habitat. The exhibition presented in the historic Column Hall comprises ten series from 1990 to the present day—from portraits to photographs of landscapes and animals to photographs of natural phenomena. Hanzlová's artistic language encourages an examination of social and ecological issues. The focus is on themes such as identity, belonging, exile and the relationship between the individual and their environment.

Memory, identity and exile

Hanzlová's personal experience of exile forms the starting point for her artistic exploration of questions of identity. In many series, she deals with the tension between origin and new home, between the familiar and the foreign. By processing her experiences, identity politics becomes comprehensible not as an abstract concept, but as a deeply personal and at the same time social issue.

In her first major series, Rokytnik (1990-1994), Hanzlová invites viewers to accompany her to her Czech home village of the same name. Without claiming to be explicitly socially critical, she creates a multi-layered portrait of the village, which at the time was caught between a socialist past and a democratic future. From a formal point of view, her consistent use of portrait format is remarkable— landscape shots are traditionally shot in landscape format.

Living environments

The series Bewohner (1994-1996), taken in European cities, was created as a direct counterpart to the Rokytnik series. The expanse of nature in Rokytnik has given way to enclosing fences and walls. The series Hier (1998, 2003-2010), on the other hand, combines portraits, pictures of animals and photographs of desolate architecture. The people appear isolated and alienated from their surroundings.

The work Female (1997-2000) was mainly taken in large metropolitan cities: This series was created between New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and London on the basis of a concept to offer women a platform. The photographs of women encountered by chance on the street show the photographic process as a communicative act. Brixton (2002) was created at the invitation of the London Photographer's Gallery in the south London district of the same name and focuses on Afro-Caribbean culture and the women's experiences of migration. The artist refrains from explicit social criticism and shows subtle empathy.

Experiencing nature

In Forest (2000-2005), Jitka Hanzlová explores the organic silence of the forest near her Czech home village as a counterpoint to the series in the urban environment. Forest is a journey into the past and a confrontation with memory, capturing the subjective experience of nature. For Hanzlová, the forest is crucial for human survival, for the exchange of oxygen, for the cultivation of flora and fauna and for the growth of organisms. In this sense, Forest is also a socio-political work.

Ecological issues and climate change

The themes of urbanity, nature and the environment underlie the series Hier (1998, 2003-2010), which was created in a large agglomeration in the Ruhr area. It addresses the relationship between nature and culture as well as problematic human interventions in the environment.

Other works by the artist also deal intensively with ecological themes. The Water series, comprising eight chapters, ventures down new paths of visual language and imagination and deals with the visible—and invisible—consequences of human activity on nature. Here, the artist focuses on the three aggregate states of water. The exhibition presents two chapters, Ice and Clouds, in which water always takes on unique forms: sequences of clouds as well as concrete and abstract details of frozen glaciers. The artist draws attention to the vulnerability of ecosystems. The threat to nature and its beauty, which she depicts without any glorification, are closely related in her photographic language.

The exhibition at the ALBERTINA Museum is rounded off by the series Bohdanka (since 2004). Like Rokytnik, it was created in her home town. Bohdanka shows the everyday rural life of a large family as an alternative form of coexistence with the environment—nature often becomes the actual protagonist. A selection of these works from the project, which has been running since 2004, is being exhibited at the ALBERTINA Museum for the first time ever.

Hanzlová's photographs address the permeability of borders and the influence of global developments on the individual. Series such as Bohdanka show a response to the prevailing consumer society and contrast the globalized world of commodities with a conscious way of life close to nature. The artist shows how globalized processes shape the lives of individuals and how they can create space for themselves in response.

Jitka Hanzlová is one of the most distinguished photographers of our time. With sensitive observation, personal history, socio-political depth and a spirit of formal innovation, her work shapes contemporary photography and encourages a critical examination of questions of identity, society and nature.