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Carine Krecké takes top photography honor, explores Syria in "Losing North" at Rencontres d'Arles 2025 |
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View of Carine Krecké's "Losing North" exhibition, Rencontres d'Arles, Chapelle de la Charité, 2025 © Armand Quetsch / CNA.
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ARLES.- Carine Krecké, a Luxembourgish artist known for her deeply investigative and interdisciplinary work, has been named the laureate of the Luxembourg Photography Award 2025. This prestigious recognition culminates in her exhibition, "Perdre le nord" (Losing North), set to open at the Chapelle de la Charité during the renowned Rencontres d'Arles festival in 2025.
"Losing North" is a profound exploration of the Syrian war, a conflict that captured Krecké's attention in 2018 through Google Maps images of a devastated Arbin, a suburb of Damascus. What began as a chance encounter evolved into a six-year obsession, driving the artist into a relentless pursuit of information across official networks, online forums, and exchange platforms. Her work, a collaboration with her twin sister, economist and author Elisabeth Krecké, and curated by Kevin Muhlen, Director of Casino Luxembourg Forum dart contemporain, delves into the fractured realities and human stories behind the conflict.
Blurring Lines: Art, Investigation, and Humanity
Krecké's artistic practice is distinctive for its forensic-like methods, using open-source data analysis and geospatial intelligence not just as tools, but as subjects themselves. Her projects deliberately blur the lines between reality and fiction, truth and falsehood, and even between the roles of observer and participant. This approach is evident in "Losing North," which features new videos and a sensitive scenographic design that invites visitors to navigate a "labyrinth of information and perceptions."
The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to witness Krecké's "total and intimate immersion" into a world that wasn't her own. By deconstructing her investigative experience, both emotionally and immersively, she takes a deliberate step back from the raw images and narratives to reflect on the meaning of looking at war. "The exhibition is not limited to a simple narrative," explains curator Kevin Muhlen. "It is an invitation to rethink our relationship to information and images in times of conflict."
A Deep Dive into "Losing North"
The title "Losing North" itself hints at the disorienting nature of the subject. "For me, it's first of all acknowledging a form of disarray in the face of the Syrian war," Krecké shared in an interview. "It also means admitting that, from my position as an investigator, initially ignorant and operating essentially online, far from the field, I have no clear answer about anything in this story." The title serves as an invitation for viewers to embrace their own disorientation and consider new perspectives.
The exhibition's four short films, collectively titled "Lend Me Your Eyes," present the viewpoints of local Google Maps guides from opposing sides of the Syrian conflict. Krecké candidly discusses the challenge of portraying these often deeply subjective and at times disturbing perspectives without endorsing them. She highlights the paradoxes encountered, such as a regime supporter who justifies atrocities while also being a loving family man. Her work acknowledges the unsettling nature of these narratives, emphasizing that looking at war often means "accepting to be shaken, jostled, sometimes even shocked."
A standout piece, "The Yellow Men," takes a textual form, appearing as an "all-over text work" on an entire wall saturated with dialogue. This fiction, born from the artist's "saturation with reality," offers an allegorical counterpoint to the more direct video narratives. It explores the anonymity and malevolence within systems of violence, such as social media, and challenges viewers to remain alert to "the banality of evil" that permeates even modern digital platforms. The physical presentation of the text, legible up close but blurred from a distance, mirrors the elusive nature of truth in conflict.
An Evolving Narrative
The project, initiated in 2018, gained new resonance with the fall of the Assad regime in December of last year. What began as an almost theoretical exploration of the gaze on war has become a testimony from a pivotal historical moment. Krecké notes that this new context "doesn't necessarily bring more answers, but it re-emphasizes the importance of the documentary act: to keep a trace, to question blind spots, to pay attention to what, just yesterday, seemed destined for oblivion."
Beyond the exhibition, "Losing North" will also be presented as an eponymous artist's book, co-published by Lëtz Arles, CNA, and Palais Books. This publication is not merely a catalog but a parallel language, inviting a slower, more contemplative engagement with the project's complex themes. It intertwines video narratives, screenshots, satellite images, and original texts by both Carine and Elisabeth Krecké, offering a fragmented yet profound record.
The scenography for "Losing North" in the Chapelle de la Charité, designed in collaboration with Nico Steinmetz and Laurent Loschetter, creates monumental, minimalist volumes that starkly contrast with the historic architecture. These structures, evocative of both devastated Syrian landscapes and "visual black holes," aim to absorb the viewer and foster an intimate relationship with the videos, making the exhibition a truly immersive experience.
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