The Office for Photography has published the second issue of FOTOTXT, dedicated to the theme Archive as Method, Artist as Archivist. This new issue builds on the exhibition An Archive as a Memory Construct by artist Sandro Đukić, presented to Zagreb audiences at Spot Gallery in October 2019. Spanning around sixty pages and enriched with striking visual material, FOTOTXT No. 2 presents the work of four artists—Sandro Đukić, Peggy Buth, Ivan Petrović, and Božena Končić Badurina—whose practices explore key questions: What is an archive? What role does it play in today’s social and artistic contexts? What are the implications of artworks that emerge from working with archives? As the editorial notes, in understanding the reality shaped by communication media, “the archive holds a special place—it is the link that allows us to assume that something like history could have happened at all.”

The launch of the new issue will take place on Tuesday, March 3, at 7 PM at Spot Gallery. The magazine will be presented by artists Božena Končić Badurina and Sandro Đukić, researcher Darko Šimičić from the Tomislav Gotovac Institute, and Lana Lovrenčić from the Office for Photography.

A wide-ranging interview with Sandro Đukić, following on from his exhibition, offers valuable insights into forms of memory, raising questions about the truthfulness of archives—especially when they are constructed through the reconstruction of individual recollections. A conversation with German artist Peggy Buth, on the occasion of her exhibition Vom nutzen der Angst. The Politics of Selection (On the Usefulness of Fear. The Politics of Selection) at Camera Austria in Graz, introduces her rich artistic practice, where photography and video intertwine to portray a world whose values have long been altered and eroded. This issue also features a visual essay by Božena Končić Badurina, who, through an almost scientific approach, produces neutral drawings by documenting everyday details from a residential building—creating an inventory that reflects both lived experience and archival investigation. In parallel, Serbian artist, photographer, and archivist Ivan Petrović—co-founder of the Center for Photography (CEF) in Belgrade in 2011 with Mihailo Vasiljević—presents his practice that spans both artistic and analytical-theoretical fields, in conversation with Slovenian curator Miha Colner.

The second issue of FOTOTXT has been published by the Office for Photography as a bilingual edition (Croatian-English), financed through the Office’s own resources. The magazine is available at the Office for Photography (Čanićeva 6, Zagreb) for 20 HRK. If you are unable to visit us in person, please contact us at info@officeforphotography.com.

The upcoming third issue of FOTOTXT, now in preparation, will be fully dedicated to the exhibition of neo-avant-garde art Phony Smile. Language of Photographic Interpretation and Aesthetic Speculation, which the Office for Photography will present at the Arton Foundation in April 2020. With this exhibition, the Office for Photography will contribute to the cultural program marking Croatia’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.