On Military Space II

Joanna Kosowska

Joanna Kosowska explores Paul Virilio’s theory of the formation of military space, travelling around Europe in search of places occupied by the German Wehrmacht during World War II: places where military structures were erected, important sites of warring battles over territory. Despite the intense research that went into the work, the images are artistic rather than documentary. The military ruins are not autonomous objects of the image; instead, the work explores the discrepancy between landscape and the remaining evidence of war. The information provided, however, reinforces what we know about the events and what we understand of the military settings and relics.
The large-scale landscapes, devoid of human presence, were shot on the British Channel Islands, in France, Greece, the Ukraine and Russia. Yet although the images show specific locations, the work is more about representing military space as such, in general terms. These evocative photographs have now been curated for an exhibition that is both historical and highly relevant for our present time.