Libuše Jarcov­jáková: Black Years

Berlin Journals 1985–1990

Libuše Jarcovjáková

The photographer’s first solo show in Berlin consists of black-and-white photographs from the years in West Berlin just preceding the fall of the Wall. The enfant terrible of Czechoslovakian photography, Libuše Jarcovjáková (born 1952), also known as the Czech Republic’s Nan Goldin, fled the dictatorship in Czechoslovakia to West Berlin in 1985. Before the backdrop of a divided city, she embarks on a desperate search for herself in an attempt to find out if her flight really led her to internal and external freedom. She seeks out the faces and places that might help her to understand her new reality and embrace it. At night, she caries out her search in bars, while during the day she earns a bit of money through hard work. The closeness that she was familiar with, the humanity and warmth that existed in spite of the political regimentation back home, is something she fails to find. She constantly battles loneliness, yet throughout this time, she records everything in photographs and words. The images come about as though thoughtlessly, on impulse, but they nonetheless have a sense of order and harmony.