series: German Gemutlichkeit
2008   
silvergelatine print on glass , wallpaper
34 x 40 cm
unique

series: Beisl-Balagan
2006
silvergelatine print on canvas
115 x 80 cm
unique

Joachim Seinfeld Explores Identity and Historical Reality
by Jaiyant Cavale

Self identity is a concept that is flawed, like many others in modern psychology. Identity as a singular concept cannot support itself unless a group of identities that exist within a person are recognized. A singular identity is neither practical nor is it helpful, for that would only make a person rigid and less conforming to the environment around them. The issue of identity is of special importance in a country like Poland which has witnessed history unlike most other countries have.
Poland lies caught between the identity of being a member of the European Union, that of being invaded by the Germans, the identity of being a spectator of millions of Jews killed in the death camps, the identity of cold and long winters of death and destruction which are beyond human comprehension. Poland and other Eastern European nations have gone through changes that most countries have not seen in decades.
Since the 90s, Eastern European nations have struggled to come to terms with a globalized environment while trying to leave behind a past that was riddled with war crimes, communism and secret police. In fact, people in these areas are confronted with so many socio-political and cultural influences, each contradicting the other, that people would not realize the many identities within them.
Joachim Seinfeld’s Beisl-Balagan was an exhibition that featured a journey through the Polish experience of life, from within and from outside. Joachim tried to explore the differences and similarities between being a traveler, a tourist, a spectator, a participant and an artist while he moved from towns and cities across Poland. Joachim used the photographs of Poland in the nineties and combined them with photographs of his own in the studio.
Using black and white photography in order to avoid color emulsion, he juxtaposed the idea of a tourist caught in a country and that of a native stuck and frozen in time, without realizing it. The photographs appear old, though they are from the nineties. This suggests the historical identitycreated by and for Poles, especially that of the World war. While doing so, the photographs explore and question the idea of identity formation and identity creation.
If one were to view these photographs as a tourist brochure, one could see Joachim in various cities of Poland trying to fit in the local landscape. If one were to watch it from the eyes of a German, the perception would again be different, with thoughts harking back to the fences and gas chambers. It is indeed significant for a person with Jewish identity to explore Poland, or even some other nation that is closely linked to his ancestors’ plight.
Identity could be a monstrous tool for the annihilation of peoples. Those who do not fit in to the image of the ideal identity can be exterminated on the basis of their identity being unacceptable. Homosexuals, Jews, Gypsies, Handicapped people and others were exterminated by the Nazis for they did not fit into the concept of an ideal identity. Ironically, it is almost impossible for a person to have a single identity. If the Nazi officer who ordered for the transporting of thousands of Jews to Auschwitz found the idea of German national identity suffocating, he perhaps would have chosen to flee the situation and avoided committing the crime.
Joachim’s Beisl-Balagan does not provide answers but poses questions to these assumptions on self identity. If one were to acknowledge and accept the sub identities and alters each person has within them, one would see a more accepting and liberal attitude. The traveler finds a new meaning and identity in each o the photographs. It is up to the viewer to decide if the traveler or character embedded in the landscape or natural surface is a reflection of his own identity or the identity he creates for others.
The surface or landscape explores the identity that is set within an individual or a person. The character or the traveler explores these surfaces, and each time finds a new identity within him. In fact, each viewer could find a different person in the photographers. With such multitude of identities and sub identities, the question of a national identity remains negated. Joachim Seinfeld held the exhibition titled “Beisl-Balagan” to explore these notions and ideas about identity and historical identity which are not limited to Poland, but across cultures.

series: German Gemutlichkeit
2008
silvergelatine print on wall paper on plywood
110 x 80 cm
unique

2005
silvergelatine print on glass
installation at the 2nd Prague Biennal

Friendly Fire
2005
interactive computer installation
500 x 90 x 270 cm

series: Himmel und Hoelle
2007/2008
silvergelatine print on travertine stone
each 40 x 40 cm
unique

2005   
silvergelatine print on glass    
unique

2006
silvergelatine print on baryte
40 x 30 cm
unique

HOLIDAY PARADISE OR ALL THE WAY TO BIHA´C

Croatia has become again a very popular destination for tourists from all over Europe in the last years. Beach holidays on the Adriatic Coast as well as trips to the beauties of nature in the interior are part of the touristic program. But there was a war going on ten years ago.
It is maximum a four hours drive from the coast to the National Parks and when you don’t look out of the window or simply sleep you won’t be disturbed. But when you open your eyes you will be driven out of Paradise. In the parks the mines have been removed so far but outside it will take another ten years to demine the territories. In these areas tourists avoid contact with people.  The avarage traveller just wants to get to his destination and forget about his daily life.
Ten Kilometers behind the shore you reach the pass and leave the mild mediterannean climat behind. Far away from the beaten tracks of tourism you imerge into the world of the plateau, a world of agriculture and shortage, marked by the civil war.The remnants of burned down farm houses next to the ruins of never finished constructions egde the roads.
Old women dressed in black sit on the way side in front of their houses littered with bullet holes and sell honey, homemade
cheese and slivovitz. Cities like Gospić, Gračac or what their names may be, look like ghost towns. Only Knin is slightly different, but what once was a town inhabited mostly by Serbians is since the Croatian counter attack in 1995 a “liberated” and “ethnically cleaned” Croatian place.
What strikes most is the existance of two parallel worlds that have nearly nothing to do with each other: The holiday paradise
and the life of the people in the hinterland, apparently forgotten by the world. Nobody seems to bother that ten, fifteen years ago neighbours, living side by side slaughterd each other inmidst “civilised” Europe.

Driving down the touristic itineraries colour snapshots of the houses and people are taken by Joachim Seinfeld from a speeding car. It is just what you see passing through the country aiming at your destination: the beach or the National Parks.
But the artist got out of the car and into contact with the people living in these “remote” areas and took black and white photographs of them. His portaits that give theses people a face that is more than just a backdrop beyond the car’s windows.
The result is an illustrated “map” from the Adriatic Sea into the interior of Lika and Dalmatia, from the holiday paradise to the still perceivable traces of a war that took place a decade ago.

The pictures were taken on the following routes:

Route1:	Rijeka – Ogulin – Josipdol – Plaški – Saborsko – Poljanak – Jezerce Korenica – Udbina
Route2:	Senj – Otočac – Vrhovine – Plitvička Jezera
Route3:	Paklenica – Gračac – Knin – Krka – Drniš – šibenik
Route4:	Zadar – Obrovac – Gračac – Drenovac – Radučki – Gospić
Route5:	Karlobag – Gospić – Prijeboj – Ličko Petrovo Selo – Izačić – Bihać

Further information about this series by Jaiyant Cavale