When silence speaks

Exhibited at the Photography Museum Maribor, Slovenia

English

With the current exhibition, photographer Almira Ćatović wishes to point at the nature being intertwined with silence. We often fail to see how strongly they are integrated and how beneficent their effect is on people, their health and psyche. Nature, which each of us is part of, continues to heal, encourage and inspire us. It is where we can retire to when in difficulty or when we simply wish to indulge in the fresh air and to absorb the energy we need in our daily life and work. Moreover, silence is related to nature – we experience it upon entering a peaceful forest to become filled with energy. Silence is also a healer. When immersed in it, we meditate and learn about ourselves, our essence and our desires. Like an epiphany, it leads us towards the light when we are sad and unable to see our aims. Silence lets us rest our mind and focus our attention on our internal feelings. The noise around us often results in chaos dragging us into a black hole from which we have to get out to remain healthy and positive. The noise awakens in us uneasiness and anxiety, and doubts about ourselves and our surroundings, and makes us hasten. We encounter such states on a daily basis, but they often remain covert and unnoticed by us. Silence is therefore of major importance for people and their calm. Meaning more than just not speaking, silence transfers to us the messages that we often overlook in our daily noise. It helps us solve the problems that accumulate throughout the day, as well as our fears and discomforts. Silence is something that keeps us stable and firm, and helps us focus our attention on our lives and what surrounds us.

All this has been emphasised by Almira in her photographs full of nature, thus evoking in us the feeling of calm. Photographs made in forests, mountains and meadows inspire us and draw us into their quiet. However, it is the same calm as well as immense grandeur of time that we feel when looking at her photographs of architecture. A captured frozen river fills us with silence and calms us down. Even the children crying are frozen in time.

Without a doubt, silence, nature and calm are the leitmotifs of this exhibition, impossible to be overlooked. All photographs have the effect of meditation and calm, making the visitors relax and immerse themselves in the silence of watching.

Pavlina Grošelj, BA Art History

Slovenian

Fotografinja Almira Ćatović nam želi na tokratni fotografski razstavi pokazati prepletenost narave in tišine. Le malo ljudi se namreč zaveda, kako močno sta povezani in kakšen blagodejen učinek imata na človeka, njegovo zdravje in duševnost. Narava, katere del je pravzaprav vsak človek, nas nenehno zdravi, spodbuja in navdihuje. Je prostor, kamor se lahko umaknemo, kadar imamo težave ali se preprosto želimo naužiti čistega zraka in vpiti vase novo energijo za življenje in  delo. Z naravo je povezana tudi tišina – izkusimo jo, kadar vstopimo v miren gozd, da se napolnimo z energijo. Tudi tišina je zdravilna. Kadar se potopimo vanjo, na neki način meditiramo in spoznavamo sebe, svoje bistvo in svoje želje. Je kot razsvetljenje, ki vodi v svetlobo, kadar smo žalostni in ne vidimo svojih ciljev. Tišina nam omogoča, da se naš um spočije in da preusmerimo pozornost na naše notranje občutke. Hrup okoli nas ima pogosto učinek kaosa, ki nas povleče v črno luknjo, iz katere se moramo izvleči, da lahko ostanemo zdravi in pozitivno naravnani. Hrup namreč vzbuja v nas nelagodje, nervozo, zaskrbljenost, dvome o sebi in okolici, nas sili v hitenje. S takimi stanji se človek pravzaprav srečuje vsakodnevno, velikokrat nastopijo prikrito in se jih niti ne zavedamo. Zato je tišina še kako pomembna za človeka in njegovo umirjenost. Tišina ni le molk, temveč nam posreduje sporočila, ki jih čez dan v hrupu največkrat spregledamo. Z njo rešujemo probleme, ki so se nakopičili v dnevu, svoje strahove in neprijetnosti. Tišina je namreč nekaj, kar nas ohranja stabilne in stanovitne, z njo lažje usmerimo pozornost na svoje življenje in okolico, ki nas obdaja.

Vse to je Almira poudarila na svojih fotografijah, ki so prežete z naravo in v nas sprožijo občutek mirnosti. Fotografije iz gozdov, gora in s travnikov nas navdihnejo in pritegnejo v svoj mir. Povsem enako mirnost in hkrati neznansko veličino časa občutimo, ko opazujemo njene fotografije arhitekture. V fotografiji zamrznjena reka nas navda s tišino in umiri. Tudi otroški jok je zamrznjen v času.

Tišina, narava in umirjenost so vsekakor glavna vodila te razstave in jih je nemogoče spregledati. Vse fotografije na gledalca učinkujejo meditativno in umirjeno, saj se gledalec ob njih sprosti in se potopi v tišino opazovanja.

Pavlina Grošelj, univ. dipl. um. zgod.