Self-published
Edition of 25 + 5AP
Handnumbered by the artists
180 lei
Seizing on the affinity between uniforms and a pin-up aesthetic, the artists proposed the following scenario: creating a calendar having security guards as protagonists, which could function both as a corporate gift to be utilized by the company and also as an art object - circulating in two different systems that may otherwise seem completely disconnected.
The producer, Larisa Crunțeanu, convinced the security company to pay the employees for their time during the shoot and in exchange collaborated on creating high quality prints that were offered to the models. The two artists worked with moving and still images, developing shots with each model, taking as a point of reference iconic poses from art history and pop culture. The process, which took almost two years to complete, resulted in a photo series realized by Adrian Knuppertz and a video work created by Xandra Popescu. These two elements function interdependently but show two very different facets of the situation. While the still images are a series of striking glamour poses, the moving image reveals the making-of process: a fragile choreography of self-construction.
Xandra Popescu works as a film-maker, writer and curator. From 2012 to 2016, together with Larisa Crunțeanu, she has led Atelier 35, a project space in Bucharest. She lives and works in Berlin and Bucharest.
Adrian Knuppertz works as an artist and photographer. Besides chronographic photography of people and the environment, he inhabits and snapshots the incomprehensible through the everyday, the artistic practice of observers and cellphone holders. He is interested in authenticity, subjective representation and projection in photography. He currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.