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Asymptote: Eery photo series that imagines a dystopian future full of repression

In their series Asymptote, Evelyn Bencicova, Adam Csoka Keller and Arielle Esther connect photography, video and sound to create scenes that imagine a dystopian future. Using buildings and locations that the trio believe are "authentic to the era of socialism", their aim is to merge historical events with a fictional scenario to blur the lines between reality and memory.

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Via Creative Boom submission | All images courtesy of Evelyn Bencicova

Via Creative Boom submission | All images courtesy of Evelyn Bencicova

The featured models in the series pose in coherent geometrical compositions, a symbol of the regime itself. "People create a pattern," says Evelyn. They become part of the overall composition: architecture and society. Each person is stripped of their own individuality to become a unified form, creating an absurd platform where every difference is an anomaly."

The sound of Asymptote fuses digital and analogue processing, extracted from authentic archives from the radio. Evelyn continues: "The acoustic manipulation shifts the collected material into abstract forms, which experiment with the viewer's perception and invites the audience into this the partially absurd game. Spartakiada, a national tradition with its roots in 1955, included colossal gymnastic performances that used choreography to unify people into large patterns and structures.

"The video footage creates a dialogue between the characters and the formations they create, following a sudden deformation by pixels that submerge into digital noise. There is a state of tension and paranoia that is induced by the obsessive repetition of sound and image. All of these elements blend into an audiovisual language creating a characteristic for Asymptote."

You can discover more of Evelyn's work at www.evelynbencicova.com. Or watch the fascinating Asymptote video below. It's certainly a Brave New World.

Five figures seated in rows of red theatre seats viewed from behind, arranged in a sparse geometric pattern that emphasises isolation and conformity
Multiple identically dressed men in grey suits and red ties descend a staircase in a stark geometric composition against a pale green tiled wall
Two figures suspended by ropes against deep red curtains in a stark, geometric composition evoking themes of control and loss of individuality
A figure hangs limply from a horizontal black beam against a white corrugated wall with vertical ribbed panels
Red and white bunting and small flags hang above figures in red clothing arranged in a geometric formation on a grey tiled wall, referencing Soviet-era mass choreography traditions
Six children in white shirts and red shorts stand in a line against a wooden wall, their faces obscured by white masks, in a gymnasium setting
Two figures stand within a dramatic geometric pattern of vertical lines that form a sharp chevron or arrow shape pointing downward, creating an unsettling sense of confinement and control
Five figures in identical pale clothing and red caps stand in a row behind a window of a dark red building with horizontal slats
Three figures in white and black clothing positioned within nested rectangular frames on a striped stairwell, viewed from above, creating geometric composition symbolising conformity and loss of individuality
Two figures seated beneath large cylindrical grey lamps with illuminated white undersides in a minimalist dystopian interior space
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