DEŇ / DAY

2021

THE DAY — a photobook commissioned by the Bratislava City Gallery on the occasion of its 60th anniversary — celebrates everydayness, deep looking and slow curiosity. The photographs offer an ephemeral portrait of the gallery, located in two historical palaces in Bratislava City center.
Sixty years versus a single day: the publication consciously confronts and connects these two contrasting segments of time. While none of us can comprehend a century, a day is something each of us can relate to: a single day, as a stretch of time, feels deeply human.

THE DAY invites the reader to experience the intimacy of the gallery space in some sort of a private guided tour: peeking into hidden corners, behind office doors, encompassing scenes that took place in the moments outside of the opening hours. THE DAY proposes various levels of intimate engagement with the institution.

The book comprises 61 analog photographs taken during the course of one day, from dawn to dusk. Each photo is accompanied by the exact time of the shot. The visual part is accompanied by 14 short essays. In them, I reflected on the obvious yet overlooked: the light and sounds inhabiting the space, the rituals of care, the treasures of the gallery archive, the history of objects and materials that make the “skin” of the space, and many more.

The DAY book has been published as a part of the Krehký archív / Fragile Archive project, initiated by the curator Zuzana Jakalová.

(Publication photos by Adam Šakový)