We have all heard about 24-hour races, but how about year-round ones? Driving has become a routine for many, although there is a lot of beauty in the coordinated movements, unintended choreography, relations between the human being behind the dashboard, and the car itself.
Greek artist Katerina Moschou spent her childhood overhearing the stories of her father’s clients who would come to his car repair shop to take care of their metal-made loved ones. Car parts, the beauty of vehicles – all that has been the masculine realm, where the women haven’t had access until recently.
Through the lenses she observes human-made and natural environments and tries to capture the relations between them.
With the “How To Drive” exhibition, which is being displayed at FOTO GEN gallery in Wroclaw, the artist invites us to step back and observe or be observed, “in our little metal-formed cavities, longing for connection”.
“By staying there (at her father’s car repair shop), taking pictures of the cars and closely interacting with them, the artist trespassed on the territory that is not hers, and established her own relations with it. Through the touch, she has in a sense fused together with devices and materials hitherto inaccessible”, says the curator of the exhibition Paweł Bąkowski, when speaking about the artist.
“The entire space of the exhibition is a re-enactment of touch – it is tactile. The photographs and the objects are arranged in an order that plays with what is seen and what is unseen. Lines and shapes form an artificial outline of a car, but the context of corporeality is evident. While driving, the person inside repeats unconsciously a specific sequence of gestures. The person’s body merges with the equipment of the vehicle, which is designed to correspond to ergonomics”, adds Bąkowski.
“How to drive” is a project by Katerina Moschou, co-published by ZOETROPE ATHENS and awarded a publishing grant by Polycopies & Co. The first, out-of-print edition of the publication was awarded the ArtsLibris Banc Sabadell Award 2023 (Barcelona 2023) and was shortlisted for the PhotoESPANA Best Photography Book Award (Madrid 2023). Until 29 September the FOTO-GEN Gallery will present an exhibition of Katerina’s photographs and sculptures curated by Paweł Bąkowski.
