Artist
Elena Helfrecht
Elena Helfrecht (b. 1992) is a German visual artist based in Bavaria. She graduated with an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 2019, having previously studied Art and Image History at Berlin’s Humboldt-Universität, and Art History and Book Science at Erlangen’s Friedrich-Alexander-Universität. With a dark, eerie aesthetic, Helfrecht’s work navigates thresholds of fiction and reality, exploring existential questions of mortality, trauma, memory and post-memory. With Void, Helfrecht will launch her first solo monograph in the fall of 2023.
Plexus
Plexus is a photographic case study based on still lifes that emerge from inherited trauma and postmemory, exploring the family as an essential contributor to psychological and cultural processes across history. Following my grandmother’s death, I returned to my family estate in Bavaria, using the house as a stage – and its archive as protagonist – for an allegorical play. In reconnecting the fragmented history of my family’s female lineage, the term ‘remembering’ becomes literal. Immersing myself into the story, I fill in gaps with dreams, associations, and imagined scenes to create a narrative that transgresses personal and national boundaries. The objects and architecture of the house become parabolic proxies, opening up a gate between the past and the present. Permeating the imagery is a figurative search for recurring histories, echoing my own repetition of the behaviours of both my mother and grandmother. By confronting a past spanning four generations, a renewed sense of identity provides ground for a detailed investigation of postmemory, mental health, war, and history.
Ania Vouloudi is a photographer, video artist and poet currently living in Thessaloniki, Greece. In her art, she uses analogue mediums, findings and chronicles of her life to create docufiction stories. Ania ́s photographs deal with apparent banality and daily routine. Having a low-fi and unpretentiousness approach that captivates us. Ania has experimented a lot with zine making, which we highly appreciate in her practice.
Elena Helfrecht is a German visual artist based in Bavaria. Having a dark and eerie aesthetic, Elena navigates universes that we consider in resonance with Void’s practices: the threshold of fiction and reality, the exploration of existentialism through mortality, trauma, memory and post-memory.
Eva Vei is a Greek visual artist whose work mainly revolves around the notion of communication and intimacy within everyday human interaction. She is interested in exploring issues of identity, belonging and human connections in modern societies while challenging the boundaries of the photographic medium. Void believes that her work, yet still unpublished, perfectly suits the book form, due to her ability in creating non-linear visual narratives, and her search for new methodologies of documentary photography and storytelling.
Maria Siorba is a Greek visual artist based in Athens, with an educational background in Communication, Graphic design and Fine Arts. Her subtle approach to
intimacy and human emotions is what sparked Void’s curiosity about Siorba’s work. Probably one of the most important contemporary subjects, “empathy” is a highlight of Siorba’s artistic exploration. Communicating, and miscommunicating. The difficulties humans encounter in expressing themselves. She examines the role that personality, mental state, emotional intelligence and cultural context play and how all these functions under the use of the constantly-evolving, technological tools of
communication.
Vic Bakin is a self-educated Ukrainian photographer. Rooted in Kyiv, Ukraine, Bakin explores different local communities such as queer and fashion scenes,
rave and music culture and closed communities such as student dorms. Recently, due to the ongoing circumstances, his focus shifted to the themes of war in Ukraine. Void’s interest in personal diaries finds a great place in Bakin’s body of work — which explores his identity through analogue photography.