Description
OD Photo Prize 2021 | Shortlisted Artist
Ana Zibelnik (b. 1995, Ljubljana) is an artist based in The Hague, Netherlands. She holds a BA in Visual Communication from the University of Ljubljana and an MA in Film and Photographic Studies from Leiden University. She explores the topics of death, longevity and the perception of time, intersecting them with ecology and reflecting on the current status of humans as actors on this planet. In her latest series Immortality is Commonplace she delves into the relationship between photography and extinction, questioning the role of the medium – defined by its ability to record – in times of ecological instability. Her practice combines a research based approach with poetic interpretation, often drawing inspiration from literature. She works as a freelance curator and editor for the Dutch cultural producer Paradox.
Mortals are those who experience death as death. In this sense, human beings are identified by an awareness of the fact that they are running out of time; an awareness which is reinforced and revisited simply by living. We are the ones turning explores how we grapple with the “possibility of impossibility” in everyday life – a topic that extends far beyond the fear of death and can deeply affect our perception of time. Zibelnik offers a distinctly human perspective on death, juxtaposing it with scenes from nature, where temporalities far larger than our own exist. She combines the prosaic with the uncanny, the sentimental with the insensible, thus contrasting the mechanical flow of time, symbolised by the clock, with our experience of it. The gesture of the turning hands, which sets the rhythm of the series as its Leitmotif, is derived from American Sign Language, where it indicates the notion of death.
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