Gaza-Frontline Daily

bar pri Slonu
opening: friday, 26th of July, @19.30

www.maticzorman.wordpress.com

Traveling at his own initiative, Matic Zorman visited Gaza Strip for several times between 2010 and 2012. In this Palestinian enclave wedged between the states of Israel and Egypt, Zorman has created a series of photoreportages perpetuating life that occurs in the shadow of constant military conflicts and comprehensive blockade of the area. Unlike most of the images published by the mainstream Western media, Zorman's photo stories adress the intimate lives of ordinary people: during his travels Zorman has established numerous close friendships with locals who assisted him at discovering their world, which we otherwise usually find invisible. The author's work is deliberately deprived from cheap sensationalism; taken as a whole it focuses mainly on survival tactics, on minute everyday moments that enable existence in unimaginable conditions to make a small step back from a state of complete chaos.
Zorman's work reveal everyday life being marked by a lack of comprehensive basic goods and eternal improvisation required by the impossible living conditions. His images form a multilayered portrait, but also a unique hommage to rebellious and proud people of Palestine whose lifes are being reduced to a daily struggle for basic existence. Mixture of overcrowded refugee camps, humanitarian crisis, total insufficiency, electricity cuts and constant military interventions form an undrinkable cocktail made up by Israel and served on a daily basis to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. In the context of this situation, it seems that solidarity is still widespread among common people, such as can only be developed within deprived, isolated communities. Or, as the photographer stated: "The Palestinians don't seem alienated. Alienated and drunk is the world."
Matjaž Brulc

about the author:
Matic Zorman's (1986) professional career in photography began in 2008 when he started to collaborate with a variety of Slovenian media as a freelance photojournalist.
In 2010 he first visited Gaza in order to document the rehabilitation of juvenile victims of war as well as the consequences of the Israeli occupation. He created reportage entitled Images of the silenced, illustrating the silent stories of everyday life in the refugee camps of Gaza. Reportage was awarded as the best one at the Slovenian Press Photo festival in 2012. In autumn 2012 Zorman joined a group of Palestinian children during rehabilitation in Slovenia, subsequently leaving for Gaza for the fourth time. He remained there until December and continued long-term project entitled Echoes of the war. During this period he also documented the eight-day Israeli offensive: reportage entitled Pillars of Defense thematises consequences of military attacks on Gaza that today, when the smoke had settled, quietly but surely continue to resonate in the lives of the Palestinians.

opening times:
22of July - 17th of August: mon - fri: 7.00 - 23.30