Opasnost od urušavanja objekta (The danger of collapsing the object) 2016

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this photograph, “The danger of collapsing the object” - at an unspecified time, capturing a building that looks like it has been standing for a century or so. There’s such a clear record of time here. The process is right there on the building’s surface, and the materials are laid bare. The texture of the wall—that mottled plaster—it’s almost like a dried-out sponge, a canvas that time itself has painted. Then you see the graffiti, like an unwanted but inevitable layer of contemporary life slapped onto this aged façade. The red is like a rude interruption of the slow, subtle decay. And the window! That empty frame, the peeled paint, it’s a mouth of sorts, a silent scream. It reminds me of work by Gordon Matta-Clark, who was also fascinated by architectural decay. But unlike Matta-Clark, who actively intervened in these spaces, Krupa just documents the scene. It’s a document of the tension between decay and the now, between the past and present. The building is collapsing, but the art remains.