Christoph Grill / depth of field
UGM Cabinet, Strossma 6th Street
16. January – 13. February 2026
opening: Friday, 16. January
Curated and curated by: Dejan Sluga, Photon Gallery and Astrid Kur / Akademie Graz
With the exhibition depth of field, the Graz photographer Christoph Grill is again presenting himself in Maribor after almost twenty years. The exhibition marks the continuation of cooperation with Photon Gallery (Ljubljana / Vienna) and artistic exchanges with Graz (Austria), an important cultural center in the immediate vicinity of Maribor.
Christoph Grill's photographic project is the result of the author's changes of locations. In his research trips, the author cultivates the openness of the researcher and lets himself be surprised by what he finds, without specific guidelines. What can be seen in the world, he says,"is disproportionate, it is an endless project". On the one hand, it is a conceptual study of what is already presented as an image, and on the other hand, it is about what meanings these landscapes manifest themselves with. In doing so, it focuses primarily on traces of political ideologies in devastated regions, on the consequences of violent interventions that visibly or invisibly contaminate them, in which people continue to try to live.
"Depth of Field" is a technical (English) term for depth of field, whereby the author refers to the pictorial depth and the many layers of depth in the images of landscapes, which are the dominant motif of this exhibition. The photographic work of Christoph Grill is characterized by the study of "lush emptiness" and a look into the depths – vast landscapes as the embodiment of the brutality, vulnerability and perseverance of life.
Christoph Grill (B. 1965) studied biology / zoology at the University of Vienna, where he focused on archaeozoology – a field that studies animal remains in an archaeological context. Today he lives and works as a photographer and archaeozoologist in Graz. Since 1996, he has been regularly touring the former socialist countries of eastern and southeastern Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union. His artwork focuses on exploring these regions, documenting the transformations and consequences of political change. Between 1999 and 2010 he visited all 15 former Soviet republics, his goal was to document the post - "perestroika" period and transformations in those countries. In exploring the peripheral regions of these countries, he sought scenes reflecting past greatness and abandoned dreams of recent history. The photographs show closed factories, abandoned military complexes and forgotten monuments, often without the presence of people, emphasizing the feeling of loneliness and abandonment. Nevertheless, Grill does not fall into stereotypes of Soviet rigor; instead, he reveals human resilience and adaptability in his works. For example, a shepherd in Armenia uses an abandoned bus as a pergola, and a hunter has arranged a home for himself in the guard barracks of a former women's penal camp on the Russian island of Sakhalin. As a result of the multi-year project, the photo book Short Stalks at Distant Shores was created, which was published in 2012 by Hatje Cantz and contains 106 photographs that offer an unadorned view of everyday life in these regions. Grill has participated in numerous group exhibitions across Europe and has had solo exhibitions in countries such as the Czech Republic, Austria, France, Slovenia and Russia. His works are included in collections in Austria and France.
Christoph Grill / Globina polja
UGM Kabinet, Strossmayerjeva ulica 6
16. januar – 13. februar 2026
otvoritev: petek, 16. januar, 19.00
Kurator in kuratorka: Dejan Sluga, Galerija Photon in Astrid Kury, Akademie Graz
Z razstavo Globina polja se po skoraj dvajsetih letih v Mariboru ponovno predstavlja graški fotograf Christoph Grill. Razstava zaznamuje nadaljevanje sodelovanja z Galerijo Photon (Ljubljana / Maribor) in umetniške izmenjave z Gradcem (Avstrija), pomembnim kulturnim središčem v neposredni bližini Maribora.
Fotografski projekt Christopha Grilla je rezultat avtorjevih menjav lokacij. Na svojih raziskovalnih potovanjih avtor goji odprtost raziskovalca in se prepušča presenečenju nad tem, kar najde, brez posebnih smernic. Kar je mogoče videti na svetu, pravi, »je nesorazmerno, je neskončen projekt«. Po eni strani gre za konceptualno preučevanje tega, kar se že predstavlja kot podoba, po drugi strani pa za to, s katerimi pomeni se te pokrajine kažejo. Pri tem se osredotoča predvsem na sledi političnih ideologij v devastiranih pokrajinah, na posledice nasilnih posegov, s katerimi so le-te vidno ali nevidno kontaminirane, v katerih pa ljudje še naprej poskušajo živeti.
»Depth of Field« je tehnični (angleški) izraz za globino polja, pri čemer avtor navezuje na slikovno globino in številne plasti globine v posnetkih pokrajin, ki so prevladujoči motiv te razstave. Za fotografsko delo Christopha Grilla je značilno preučevanje »bujne praznine« in pogleda v globino – obsežne pokrajine kot utelešenje brutalnosti, ranljivosti in vztrajnosti življenja.
Christoph Grill (r. 1965) je študiral biologijo / zoologijo na Univerzi na Dunaju, kjer se je osredotočil na arheozoologijo – področje, ki preučuje ostanke živali v arheološkem kontekstu. Danes živi in dela kot fotograf in arheozoolog v Gradcu. Od leta 1996 redno potuje po nekdanjih socialističnih državah vzhodne in jugovzhodne Evrope ter republikah nekdanje Sovjetske zveze. Njegovo umetniško delo se osredotoča na raziskovanje teh regij, pri čemer dokumentira preobrazbe in posledice političnih sprememb. Med letoma 1999 in 2010 je obiskal vseh 15 nekdanjih sovjetskih republik, njegov cilj je bil dokumentirati obdobje po »perestrojki« in preobrazbe v teh državah. Pri raziskovanju perifernih regij teh držav, je iskal prizore, ki odražajo preteklo veličino in zapuščene sanje nedavne zgodovine. Fotografije prikazujejo zaprte tovarne, opuščene vojaške komplekse in pozabljene spomenike, pogosto brez prisotnosti ljudi, kar poudarja občutek osamljenosti in zapuščenosti. Kljub temu Grill ne zapade v stereotipe o sovjetski strogosti; namesto tega v svojih delih razkriva človeško odpornost in prilagodljivost. Na primer, pastir v Armeniji uporablja zapuščen avtobus kot pergolo, lovec pa si je uredil dom v stražarski baraki nekdanjega ženskega kazenskega taborišča na ruskem otoku Sahalin. Kot rezultat večletnega projekta je nastala fotografska knjiga Short Stalks at Distant Shores, ki je bila izdana leta 2012 pri založbi Hatje Cantz in vsebuje 106 fotografij, ki ponujajo neolepšan pogled na vsakdanje življenje v teh regijah. Grill je sodeloval v številnih skupinskih razstavah po Evropi ter imel samostojne razstave v državah, kot so Češka, Avstrija, Francija, Slovenija in Rusija. Njegova dela so vključena v zbirke v Avstriji in Franciji.