Maria COREJOVA, 2012 The Place of Ghosts The Place of Ghosts

“The Place of Ghosts” is inspired by the history of Kolmannskuppe, a town in Namibia once famous for its diamond deposits. Founded in the early twentieth century, it was one of the first German colonial towns in southern Africa. People settled there to mine the local diamond fields, in a hostile environment with no water, no rain, intense heat, and infertile soil. A wealthy mining town grew up, complete with imposing homes inspired by the architecture of the global West. After a brief period of prosperity, people began to leave in the 1930s and the desert gradually reclaimed its territory, burying the buildings under tons of sand. Inspired by this ghost town’s beauty and horror, Maria Čorejová created “Places of Ghosts,” a series consisting of six drawings. Executed in ink, the abandoned house has been half taken over by a black mass that suggests mud, sand, blood or, in a figurative sense, the indeterminate (whether positive or negative). The enveloping black recalls a vague memory, yet simultaneously also references a potentially growing fear of current political and environmental changes, although the artist does not restrict her work to a precise interpretation.

Mária Čorejová (Bratislava/SK 1975) graduated from Daniel Fischer’s painting class at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. She received a STRABAG Artaward International Recognition Award in 2010.