ARTIST PROFILE

Jan Durina

  • Slovakia (b. 1988 in Žilina)
  • Currently in Slovakia.
  • Jan Durina (born 1988) is a Slovak visual artist working primarily with photography.

REPRESENTATION

CONTACT & LINKS

ARTIST INFO

ARTIST STATEMENT

(SK)
V mojej práci sa venujem prevažne fotografii, inštalácii, videu a experimentálnej práci so zvukom.

Najväčšiu inšpiráciu nachádzam v ľuďoch, ktorých stretávam a s ktorými žijem. V ich životoch, príbehoch, vzťahoch a intimite. Prostredníctvm skúmania iných sa často dozvedám mnohé o sebe samom, a prirodzene sa v svojej tvorbe zaoberám i vlastnou osobnou históriou, snami, vzťahmi, či fantazijnými príbehmi, ktoré som si od detstva zvykol v mysli vytvárať. Moje dielo často dokumentuje momenty silného emocionálneho i fyzického vypätia a je pre mňa akousi psychologickou štúdiou.
V svojich fotografiách sa pohrávam s presahmi medzi inscenovanou fotografiou a dokumentom a sú typická silnou vizuálnou stránkou a ťaživou, tajomnou atmosférou.

(EN)
In my artwork, I mainly focus on photography, installation, video and experimentation with sound.

My biggest inspiration are the people that I meet and with whom I live. Their lives, stories, relationships and intimacy. By observing and exploring the others, I learn a lot about myself. Significant part of my work deals with my own personal history, dreams, relationships, and imaginative stories that I used to create in my mind since an early childhood. My work often document moments of deep emotional and physical experiences and anxiety and I percieve it as my personal psychological study.

My photographs usually balance between staged photography and documentary photography with their typical strong visuality and stifling, mysterious atmosphere.


BIOGRAPHY

The turn towards observation and mysterious voyeurism in the works of Jan Durina comes after a previous preoccupation with directed photography. Connections between observed reality, substantiality of the moment, personal experience with the photographed persona and the desire to portray mutual relationships simultaneously links us to nature – sleeping trees, force of the wind and the energy of the water. The figures are not just mere human bodies with strong visual energy, they are interconnected by relations and experience – genuine individuals. This connection of intimacy, the exposed human body and poetry of needs, are spoken of in the works of Jan Durina with implicit frankness, almost lightness.

(Petr Hošek, for Jiri Svestka Gallery Berlin, 2015)