Insider/Outside

Abstract

Multi-media artist Lucia Nimcova approaches a cultural document of interior life in her native Slovakia and bordering countries. Her sensitive and complex bodies of work portray people within a shifting cultural mix, particularly women in Eastern and Central Europe. Born in 1977, Nimcova is an internationally known photographer and installation artist. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout Europe and the United States and is in numerous public and private collections. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nimcova studied at a secondary school for the arts in Slovakia and at the Institute of Creative Photography in the Czech Republic and later at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Nimcova's first major body of work, Instant Women (2002-05), gained wide national and international recognition for the artist, including a grant from the Slovak National Institute of Public Affairs. A documentary project about women in Eastern and Central Europe, Instant Women is a series of large-scale color photographic prints that presents women finding their identity through an examination of tradition and domestic roles, in regard to encroaching western culture and materialism. In 2006 she finished the project RUSYNS--Lost Homes (RUSNACI/RUSYNS, 2005-06), focusing on the cultural heritage of the an ethnic group to which the artist belongs. In Rusyns, archival and contemporary images merge with maps, songs, and videos. A book under the same title was published by CEE PhotoFund as part of the project. Nimcova's most recent project, UNOFFICIAL (2008), is a more personal reflection on the recent changes that have swept through her hometown. In UNOFFICIAL, Nimcova examines the effect that these changes had on the people not only on a material level, but on a deeper, personal one. Based on archival photographs, the project speaks to the artist's personal connection with the place and her deep understanding and empathy with the people. Nimcova is a recipient of numerous awards, including the ECB Photography Award (Germany), LeicaOskar Barnack Award(Germany), Fotografia Baume and Mercier Award (Italy), and Kasahara Michiko Prize (Japan). In addition, she has received grants from institutions such as the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Center for Contemporary Arts in Slovakia, and the Asia-Europe Foundation in Singapore. Her other recognitions include the Koninklijke Ahrend n.v. Fellowship (2008) and the Joop Swart Master Class, both in The Netherlands (2004). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In addition to her own practice, Nimcova lectures and gives workshops internationally. She has curated a number of exhibitions and participated in a number of international residency programs, including at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York City, both in 2008. Nimcova's work defies categories--it appears in different lights as both documentary and fiction, photojournalistic and archival, contemporary and traditional. Through the eyes of a young person of a minority culture, Nimcova uses her alternative perspective to observe people on the edges of cultures as life--politics, age, time, fashion, gender, body images shifts around them. Her work is deeply empathetic and goes far beyond stereotypes. MASHA RYSKIN AND JOANNA HEATWOLE: Your passion for your subject matter must stem from personal experience and history. How did you initially get involved with photography? LUCIA NIMCOVA: I was born in a small town in the eastern part of Slovakia. I have never forgotten where I came from. My childhood is a source of many themes and topics for my current work. Though nobody in my family had anything in common with art or culture I started to take photographs when I was nine years old. It was a lucky coincidence. I [took] many courses when I was a child: from literature to marksmanship. …