The aim of this workshop was to capture the essence of Terra Incognita, or in this case, Minsk. During the first week of May participants Vladimir Andjelich (BY), Nilüfer Karanfil (TR), Veronika Karchmit (BY), Aleksandra Korotkevich (BY), Pavel Yurkevich (BY), Grigor Nalchajyan (ARM), Aleksandra Strashinskaya (BY), and Łukasz Woleński (PL) explored Minsk together withtutor Joonas Parviainen (FI). Many of us visited Minsk – and Belarus – for the first time and thus had fresh eyes and curious minds for the city. Through spontaneous photography we could show what we see in Terra Incognita, especially what we haven’t seen before, things we find extraordinary orare not familiar with.
Documenting and analysing Minsk through spontaneous photography helped to capture various atmospheres essential to Terra Incognita and was also a great way to explore the city. Spontaneity was achieved by using disposable cameras and polaroid cameras, both of which support spontaneous photography but in different ways. With these kind of cameras one starts photographing intuitively and spontaneously, not thinking too much about the method but of the overall atmospheres.
In addition to taking photographs we recorded soundscapes of the city, which you can hear on the background of this exhibition, and built a Camera Obscura pavilion to isolate a living landscape from it’s usual surroundings, to make people look at a familiar landscape in a new light. You can find the pavilion nearby the entrance to the Azgur museum. This is a documentation of an outsiders viewpoint and first impressions on your hometown, and also how the perception evolved during one week. Enjoy!
