On Saturday, August 26, 2023 at 7:00 p.m., you are cordially invited to the photo exhibition of Pulfrfabrek, Dušan Letnar, in the gallery of Photo Club Kamnik.
Kamniška Barutana has always raised countless questions and was shrouded in a veil of mystery. Surrounded by a wire fence and hidden from the eyes of ordinary mortals, it mysteriously testified on the one hand about the danger that lurks every day behind its walls, and on the other about the importance of its being, and was thus firmly placed on the pedestal of pride of Kamnik and its inhabitants.
With the period of Slovenian transition, its slow decline began, which eventually materialized. More than just traces of the once glorious times and its stories remain from the once magnificent place. The mighty buildings fell into disrepair and became a reminder of the past.
Dušan Letnar has been fascinated by the space of the gunpowder store for a long time. If his exhibition from three years ago on the Gunpowder Wall focused on buildings, the focus of his current exhibition is on the arbitrary growth of nature, which took the space for itself when people were no longer there. Black-and-white analog photographs, which he made himself in the darkroom of the Photo Club Kamnik, show how nature conquered and grew over (and through) the industrial landscape and obscured human interventions into it.
Even the author himself has always been interested in the mystery of the place - living in the neighborhood, he kept an eye on the place, hidden by the forest and protected by the army. Although the factory was no longer in operation, the protection remained - even in 2014, when the series was created, this was the case. He ventured almost guerilla-like into the protected area, and in fear of the possible consequences of capture, the photographs were created - somewhere on the borderline between the complete disintegration of man's past activity and the imminent re-emergence of a dense forest. The recordings were created, which for some would finally remove the veil that used to hide its interior with iron and concrete.
Black and white photographs are a feature of Letnar's works. With this, he always manages to capture a moment immersed in timelessness. The solidity of his poetics thus takes us once again to another time period, and as an excellent observer and storyteller, his works evoke a sentimental note that overwhelms the viewer. The exhibited landscapes continue and confirm this aesthetic of his - carefully (and hastily) considered compositions establish the timelessness of a space in which there is no longer room for people who are nowhere to be found. At the same time, the question arises as to what happened to the space.
After the time distance of almost a decade, the situation is completely different. The forest has taken its place, thoroughly sifted it; plants have taken over tracks, roads and paths. However, man entered it again - he cut down the trees, filled up the streams, dug up the paths, demolished the tracks and buildings - leveled to the ground, the bog became a symbol of human greed, self-centeredness and capitalist desire for more. With the exhibition, Letnar does not want to warn and point only to the power of nature, which through the captured moments in the Pulfrfabrka tended to restore the original state. Man's deliberate interference with nature is still necessary - human superiority over it is completely senseless and mindless; without coexistence and respect for its laws, man cannot exist in the long term.
With all this, the photos inspire us to wonder how long it will be like this - how long human greed will shamelessly change the landscape. There is no answer to that. But we can think that the power of nature cannot be surpassed. In the spirit of the events of a few weeks ago, it can be noted that nature has shown its power again - if the trees were not destined to take up space and displace man, this time the water came to their aid and this time it completely changed the area of the once flourishing gunpowder store.
The exhibition is an excellent witness of space - space of memory, stories, mystery, nostalgia. A space that once was and will never be the same again. A space that is now open, but due to human greed, not as many would like. And the space that nature gives you every now and then
he takes it back, showing his true nature.
Anže Slana