Please note that the Prince Claus Fund Gallery is closed from 24 December 2011 to 1 January 2012.

Prince Claus Fund Gallery, Amsterdam – 12 December 2011 to 9 March 2012

The exhibition Lives Behind with photographs of 2011 Prince Claus Laureate Rena Effendi (Azerbaijan) was opened on 12 December in the Prince Claus Fund Gallery by Rena Effendi who spoke of her work which is an eloquent testimony to human dignity and resilience. The exhibition focuses on people’s extraordinary ability to adapt to any situation. Included are photographs from various series of photographs by Rena Effendi. It can be visited in Amsterdam till 9 March 2012

When: 12 December - 9 March 2012

Where: Prince Claus Fund Gallery, Herengracht 603, Amsterdam

Photographer Rena Effendi (Baku, 1977) creates work that is an eloquent testimony to human dignity and resilience. Rena Effendi is honoured with a 2011 Prince Claus Award ‘for her remarkable portraits of individual lived experiences in zones of silence, for documenting the social impact of rampant, profit-driven ‘development’ and for raising awareness of social realities in contexts that require developmental support.’

The exhibition Lives Behind follows Effendi’s ten-year journey of documenting the struggles and small triumphs of people, mainly living in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Yet the story of the exhibition transcends geographical borders to become a collective portrait of people who have survived isolation, ruin and devastating pollution. Somehow they are maintaining an independent existence despite being caught between an unstable past and a frightening future. Lives Behind provides photographic proof that too many people are stranded in the wake of industrial development, expansion and capitalism.

In the exhibition Effendi chose to use a series of photos she will also publish in her upcoming book on environmental issues in her native Baku (Azerbaijan). Effendi combines and contrasts the urban decay of her series ‘Oil Village’ with the butterfly collection of her father, a dissident entomologist, who amassed more than 90,000 specimens before his death in 1991. In this combination the beauty of nature blends with the bleakness of the human condition, its resilience and fragility. Another series included in the exhibition is ‘Chernobyl: Still life in the Zone’. In Chernobyl (Ukraine), Effendi documented the strange yet heroic existence of old women living in the Zone: the restricted area around Reactor 4. In the aftermath of nuclear catastrophe, they returned to reclaim their homes from an inhospitable world where most of the food they produce still contains dangerous levels of radiation. Nonetheless, these women keep subsisting on their orchards and sheer perseverance. For them, the idea of abandoning their homes is even more terrifying than radiation poisoning.

As Effendi continues to highlight the themes of isolation and loss in the face of progress, her most recent work focuses on Egypt’s struggle for reform and justice in an uncertain future. Here too, the hopes of millions of people for a better life remain unfulfilled.

Curator of the exhibition is Bas Vroege, Director of Paradox.