"The simulacrum never conceals the truth - the truth conceals that there is none". Jean Baudrillard
The artist Johannes Heuer and his creature Egon, Hardegg, Austria, August 2020.
Wajeeha Wasti, Dancer, Lahore, Pakistan, March 2024
Boris Gafurov artistic director of the Ilkhom Theatre and actor. Tashkent, Uzbekistan, January 2020
Nidaa Mehboob, Photographer, Lahore, Pakistan, December 2022
Evelyn Corvea, actress and dissident , Havana, Cuba, February 2022
Teona Kokorev is a queer Russian actor and multidisciplinary artist. Since March 2022, she has been in exile in Kyrgyzstan because of her total opposition to Ukraine's invasion. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, March 2023.
Yuri Mechitov, Photographer, Tbilisi, Georgia, October 2019
Didana Suseeva has a degree in History of Religions. She has become a Ballet artist at the Philarmonia Theatre of Bishkek and poses in an abandoned Soviet pencil factory. Min Kush. Kyrgyzstan, March 2023
Gorki Águila, Punk Rock musician, leader of the band Porno para Ricardo and dissident. Havana, Cuba, February 2022
Sergey Chervyakov has a degree in biology, but prefers to be a mime at the Kazakh State Circus. In this picture, Sergey mimes an unnamed dictator, one of those who have too often plagued the history of Central Asia. Almaty, Kazakhstan, January 2020
Since 1996 Elisabeth von Samsonov holds the chair of philosophy and art anthropology at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her work comprises sculpture, video, painting and performance focused on matriarcho-feminist topics like women’s‘ role in history and nowadays and the self-representation of women in political, economic and religious contexts. Harmannsdorf, Austria, October 2020
Mico Sreynoch Khun, dancer, choreographer. Phnom Penh, Diamond Island, November 2022
Christoph Angerer, musician, Unternalb, Austria, November 2020
Alina Mambetalieva, Prima Ballerina dances around a veiled warlord, Bishkek Baatyr before its inauguration. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, April 2021
Satar Aitiev, mosaic artist, in front of his work "The Path of Enlightenment" (1978) at the Kyrgyz National University. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, May 2021
Anita Windhager is a visual artist based in Lower Austria. Windhager's work tells of people and the changeability of their emotional worlds. A few years ago, her leg had to be amputated. Since then, with the help of a prosthesis and Alfred's attentive love she has been fighting to continue living and painting. “A disability is not the end of the line, but a departure into a different visual, spatial and tactile life”, she says. Anita and Alfred got married in December 2020. Schrattenthal, Austria, July 2020
Levan Berdzenishvili, survivor of the Soviet gulag, author of “Sacred Darkness”, philologue, politician and beloved professor.
Tbilisi, Georgia, October 2019
Zarifa Adiba, Aghfani violoniste. In 2017 she was the conductor of the first and only-female Afghan orchestra that performed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a symbol of just how far the country had come since the dark days of the Taliban.
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, April 2022.
Zoya Falkhova is an artist whose practices are rooted in feminism, political criticism and an attempt to deconstruct the role of the Soviet Union in the history of Kazakhstan. She denounces nationalistic moods, lack of civil society and human rights in contemporary Central Asia. Zoya poses on the roof of her building with a young woman's head that she bought after the fall of the USSR to practice drawing. Almaty, Kazakhstan, January 2020
Arif Lohar, musician and singer, Lahore, Pakistan
Dirk van den Berg, director, writer and producer. Oberfladnitz, Austria, December 2020
Aun Raza, photographer. Europa Warte, Austria, January 2021
Afreen Khan, actress and dancer. Lahore, Pakistan, November 2018
Reinhard Lehninger, general practitioner and accomplished Schubert Lieder singer. Retz, September 2020
Lynn Cruz, actress and activist. Havana, Cuba, October 2019
Leang Seckon is a Khmer Rouge regime survivor, a visual artist and a performer. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, November 2022
Bermet Borubaeva is a researcher, an activist, and artist. Her portrait was staged on the premises of the Sadikov Academy of Arts of the Kyrgyz Republic. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, February 2020
Dangerous Current, make-up artist, Lahore, Pakistan, November 2018
Tommy Reyes, former dancer at the National Ballet of Cuba. He lives in a big house saturated by memories. Havana, Cuba, October 2017