Ideal Place
lambda print
50 cm х 75 cm (10 pcs)
edition: 1/5 + 2 a.c.
2003–2005
Ideal Place is a project that deals with a utopian construction of an idyllic state of happiness. It is based on a series of interviews with young people living in different Eastern European countries. The work was exhibited at the 45th October Salon in 2004.
In almost all Eastern European countries, socialism reigned for a long time, and in most texts on utopias, it is presented in as an ideal system. The young people with whom the author spoke live in the post-communist era, in the period of globalization, while their countries are undergoing great political and economic changes, and the memory of the systems from the past remains problematic.
A utopia is always based on the principle of equality of its inhabitants, and individual desires and dreams are suppressed for the sake of the common good. Instead of applying global theories, the author stopped ordinary people on the street and asked them what their personal idea of an ideal place was.
To avoid any immediate social context, people were photographed in nature. They listed their name, age, place and country in which they live, and then described their imagined ideal place in a few sentences. This project compares different projections of utopia based on personal experience and personal wishes of young people from Eastern Europe in the early 2000s.
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon Collection and the artist
Gift Contract: III-5-292/26.9.2014.
Inventory No. 1360
Photo: Cultural Centre of Belgrade
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Paula Muhr Miklošević (1977, Subotica, Serbia). She graduated in photography at the BK University in Belgrade, and received her master’s degree from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. She has attended doctoral studies at Humboldt University in Berlin, Art and Visual History Department; a laureate of the FEX Award in Dortmund and Mangelos Award in Belgrade. In the period from 2011 to 2014, she taught at the Department of Visual Studies and Photography at the Brand Academy in Hamburg. Lives and works in Berlin. More information at www.paulamuhr.de