Instagram Takeover: Monika Orpik

This week we welcome recent London College of Communication graduate, Monika Orpik to our takeover. Monika was our selected winner for the Photoworks prize given during her degree show.

Monika Orpik (b.1997) is an artist from Poland. Through the medium of photography and experimental processes in the darkroom, she tries to explore the subject of trauma of post-conflict communities and question the influence of art on the process of reconciliation. She holds a Bachalor of Arts in Photography from London College of Communication.

 

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Hi, it’s @monika.orpik with another day of @photoworks_uk instagram takeover. Here is a install shot of my Final Major Project at London College of Communication, where it was the first time I showed still unfinished “Manual of Participation”. Even though exhibiting work-in-progress is not a common practice and many academics discouraged me from that, I decided to use it as the way to develop it even more considering the great potential of many visitors coming to the show. Thanks again to @shoair_m for giving me @photoworks_uk award for the work and the ongoing support on the way. #photoworks_uk #monikaorpik #takeover

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Jan 31, 2020 at 12:10am PST

 

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Hi, it’s @monika.orpik taking over @photoworks_uk instagram account. Pilica Culture House, Pilica, Bosnia and Herzegovina The Pilica Culture Center was in the 1st battalion of the Zvornik Brigade’s zone of responsibility. On July 16th hundreds of Muslim prisoners were executed there. It is not known whether anyone survived the killings there. According to the testimony of Drazen Erdemovic, the same soldiers from Bratunac who had arrived to assist with the Branjevo Military Farm shootings carried out the killings at the Pilica Cultural Center. These soldiers from Bratunac left the Farm as soon as the executions there were finished and travelled to another location to continue with the killings. Erdemovic testified that, at around 1500 hours on July 16th, 1995, after he and his fellow soldiers from the 10th Sabotage Detachment had finished executing the prisoners at the Branjevo Military Farm, they were told that there was a group of 500 Bosnian Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica trying to break out of a nearby club. He and the members of his unit refused to carry out any more killings. They were then told to attend a meeting with the Lieutenant Colonel at a café in Pilica. #photoworks_uk #monikaorpik #takeover

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Jan 29, 2020 at 9:31am PST

 

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@monika.orpik here as part of @photoworks_uk instagram takeover. Potocari Cemetery The massacre in Srebrenica began in Potocari, where some 25,000 Bosniak refugees had desperately gathered awaiting evacuation. After entering the city in 13 July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, led by Ratko Mladic, moved into Potocari and separated many Bosnian men and teenage boys from the rest of the crowd before killing them; some women and girls were raped and killed as well. The Dutch UN peacekeepers stationed in Srebrenica (Dutchbat) were unable to stop the massacre, despite having their headquarters in the town. By 2019, the estimate of 7,000 genocide victims have been identified through through DNA analysis (conducted by the International Commission on Missing Persons) of human remains recovered from mass graves and 6,610 (as of July 2017) victims have been buried. The search for more than 1,000 missing continues. #photoworks_uk #monikaorpik #takeover

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Jan 29, 2020 at 12:31am PST

 

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It’s @monika.orpik taking over @photoworks_uk account and sharing ongoing “Manual of Participation” project. Tito’s Bunker in Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina In September 1979, when the bunker was already ready, only 16 people knew about its existence -three generals and thirteen soldiers working at the location. Everyone was obliged to keep the location secret. The shelter still exists thanks to the Bosnian guard military who refused to comply with the order blowing up the building, issued by Serbian headquarters in 1992. The interiors of the complex have remained intact since Tito, which, according to sources, never visited this place. In the bunker for several years the Contemporary Art Biennale is organised “D-0 ARK Underground”. #photoworks_uk #monikaorpik #takeover

A post shared by Photoworks (@photoworks_uk) on Jan 27, 2020 at 8:47am PST