To emigrate is always to dismantle the center of the world, and so to move into a lost, disoriented one of fragments.”
John Berger

Having graduated with an MFA in painting in the Czech Republic, Marie Tomanova moved to the United States in 2011 to work as an aupair in North Carolina. While there, she started working out her new feelings of displacement through the photographic medium: “I left my little town, I’m living on the other side of the world, and it’s still me. I had numerous times where I felt like I was losing my identity and not knowing who I am.” By 2014, she had started rearticulating this idea of dislocation through a series of self-portraits, in which she attempted to visualize herself as part of the American landscape.
It is through her self-portrait work that she started to gain a new sense of self-worth as an artist and as a person. During this time she also began her work on the Young American – a series of portraits of all the new people she started meeting after moving to New York. Her self-portraiture work in nature and the Young American series, are in a way an expression of the same impuls. It’s about attempting to imagine oneself as part of the American landscape visually, socially and culturally.

This is what famous photographer Ryan McGinley wrote in his introduction to Tomanova’s debut monograph Young American: “This is a future free of gender binaries and stale old definitions of beauty. In Marie’s world people can just simply be. I wish all of America’s youth culture looked like Marie’s photos of Downtown, diverse and inclusive.”

The upcoming exhibition, presented by EEP Berlin, brings together for the first time a wide range of Tomanova’s work including: Self-Portraiture (2014-ongoing), Young American (2015-ongoing), and Live For the Weather (2005-2010), a series of early images taken while growing up on a farm in Mikulov, Czech Republic.

Curated by Thomas Beachdel and Maya Hristova.
The artist will be present at the opening and will be signing last copies of her debut monograph Young American, which has already sold out.

About EEP Berlin:
EEP Berlin is a Berlin based photography platform presenting the work of contemporary Eastern Europe authors to Berlin audiences.

Apr 26 — May 17, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 7 pm
Facebook Event

EEP Berlin

Liegnitzer Str. 34, 10999 Berlin
[Kreuzberg | Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg]

Opening hours: Wed – Sun 2 – 6 pm

Admission free