Winner of the Niépce Prize (2000) and of the Leica Prize (2004), Klavdij Sluban is a French photographer of Slovenian origin based in Paris. Now aged 42, he continues the development of his rigorous and coherent body of work. Sluban learnt the subtleties of black & white printing under the guidance of Georges Fèvre. Although he held a Masters’ degree in Anglo-American literature, little by little, he gave up teaching to commit wholly to photography. Never inspired by immediate and sensational current affairs, Sluban’s numerous photography trips are permeated with literary references for example, Beckett, Milton. The Black Sea, the Caribbean, the Balkans, and Russia can be read as many successive steps of an in-depth study of a patient proximity to the encountered real. His deep blacks and backlit silhouettes convey to his photographic style uprightness and accuracy free of didacticism or exoticism.
Exhibitions
2011
Confins, Toulon Hotel des Arts, Paris
Experience within bounds, Hotel des Arts, Paris
A Mediterranean Journey workshop, Les Recontres D’arles, Paris
2010
Notre Historie, Bosnie-Herzgovine 1992-1995, Centre Andre Malraux de Sarajevo
Transsiberiades, Entrée Libre, Galerie Taiss, Paris
Le Recontres Arles, Paris
2009
Recontresd’Arles, European Publishers Award for Photography 2009
projected at the Theatre Antique
Beijing Art Fair, Photo Beijing 2009
Transsiberiades, Taiss Galerie, Paris
2008
L’hotel de Sauroy – Mois de la Photo, Paris, France
Museum of Texas Tech University, Texas, USA
Lyon Photography Biennial, “Retour-Aller”, Bleu de Ciel Gallery
Art Beijing2008 National Agricultural Exhibition Center Beijing China
2007
“Other shores, the baitic sea”, Aura Gallery, Shanghai, China
Bolzano Arts Centre, Italy
Fine-Arts Museum, Caen, France
Sirius Arts Centre, Ireland
Fotografia Europea, Photography Festival of Reggio Emilla, Chlostri dl San Domenico, Italy
2006
Harvard University, USA
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
National Museum, Krakow, Poland
2005
National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia (catalogue)
Museum of Modern Art, Canton, China (retrospective exhibition with catalogue)
Museum of Photography, Helsinki Finland. National Museum of Estonia
Festival of Photography in Central America, Son Jose, Costa Rica (with catalogue)
2004
Millenium Museum for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China.
Gallery of Art of the Union of Artists, Riga, Latvia.
Festival Chroniques Nomades, Honfleur, France.
Cloître St.-Louis Avignon, France.
2003
Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
International Festival of Photography Pingyao, China
Image et Paysage, 16 French photographs, Jakarta Indonesia
International Festival of Skopelos Centre of Photograpy, Greece
2002
Transverses: Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
Ten-year Retrospective of photography.
Pablo de la Torriente Brau, gallery, Havana, Cuba.
Jérusalem(s), presented in East and West Jerusalem and in occupied territories (Gaza).
Paradise Lost, Galerie du Château d’Eau
Encontros da Imagem, Braga festival, Portugal.
2001
Musée d’art haïtien, Port-au-Prince.
Photography gallery, Santo-Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Centre Méditerranéen de la Photographie, Bastia.
Historical Museum of Tbilissi, “The Caravanserail” gallery, Georgia.
2000
FNAC Photo Galleries, winner of the Prix Niepce.
Rencontres du livre européen, Museum of Literature, Sarajevo.
Pouchkine Museum, Odessa, Ukraine.
1999
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris groups assignment and exhibition
1998 – 2000:
Around the Black Sea presented in the countries of the Black Sea with the support
of French Cultural Institutes and Centres.
1998
K. Sluban et les jeunes détenus de Fleury-Mérogis: les lieux d’un piège.
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Mois de la Photo Paris.
Grazia Neri gallery, Milano.
1997
Tokyo Today, Metropolitan Museum of Photography of Tokyo. Travelling
exhibition throughout Japan and Europe: Royal Museum of Architecture in
Copenhagen, Stockholm, Luxembourg…
Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles, Palais de l’Archevêché.
Palazzo Pubblico in Sienna, Italy.
Encontros de Fotografia in Coimbra, Galeria do Atrio, Portugal.
1995-1996
Balkans – Transit presented in the Balkans with support of French Institutes.
1995
5th International Photography Biennale, Fondazzione Rivetti, Torino, Italy.
1994
D’Est en Ouest, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Beaubourg-Centre Pompidou.
Awards
Prix Niepece 2000
Prix Leica, Medal of Excellence, 2004
Fiacre Fellowship French Ministry of Culture, 2001
Villa Médicis Hors-les-Murs, 1998
Fellowship for workshops in prisons, DRAC Ile-de France 1996
Documentary Films on Klavdij Sluban
Series Derriére la Page, Coup d’œil/Arte, Metropolis, 8min, 2002.
Series Photos-Photographes, Cndp/La 5, 13min, 2001.
In Henri Cartier-Bresson L’amour tout court, Les Films a Lou/Arte, 90min. 2001.
Metropolis, Arte 15 min, 1997.
Work in Prisons
In 1995, Klavdij Sluban created a photography workshop for teenagers in the Juvenile Detention Centre in Fleury-Mérogis (South of Paris, the biggest jail in Europe). The Adolescents were taught a creative approach, development and printing in photography. Their work is regularly shown inside the jail. Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson attended several times a year from the beginning of the project, as did photographers William Klein and Marc Riboud who also attended to encourage the participating adolescents.
In 2000, K.Sluban created another photographic workshop in Celje, Slovenia, in the only national prison for teenagers.
Following these projects, K.Sluban started working with young prisoners in the former Soviet-Union (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Latvia), with similar photographic exchange
Collections
Fonds National d’art Contemporain, Paris
Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
Musée National d’art Beaubourg, Paris
The Metropolitan Museum of Photography of Tokyo
The collections of the FNAC galleries,
NSM Vie/ABN-AMRO,
Museum of Photography in Braga, Portugal,
Galerie du Château d’Eau de Toulouse,
Musée Réattu in Arles
Museum Pouchkine in Odessa.
Guangdong Museum of Art
Publications
Klavdij Sluban 10 ans de photographie en prison – L’œil Électrique Éditions 2006, Rennes, France – DVD on 10 years of photography in prisons.
East to East – a retrospective – Guangdong Museum of Art – 2006.
Entre Parenthèses, Photo Poche, Ed. Actes Sud 2005, (coll. Société), 10 ans de photographies sur les adolescents en prison (France, ex-Yugoslavia, Ex-Soviet Union).
Balkans – Transit, text by François Maspero, Seuil ed., Paris 1997 (Prix Radio France Internationale, paperback).
La Confusion des Genre en Photographie, Bibliothèque Nationale de France ed., Paris 2001, (with texts by Mark Haworth-Booth, Anne Wilkes Tucker,…).
Transverses, Maison Européene de la photographie, Paris 2002
