OFFSIDE - Football in Exile

Baku, Azerbaijan - 2009

Baku, Azerbaijan - 2009

OFFSIDE - Football in Exile is a photography project documenting the "forgotten conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh". It adresses the conflict from the perspective of two football teams: FK Qarabag Agdam and FK Karabakh Stepanakert. It's running till 8th May 2012 at Noorderlicht in Groningen, The Netherlands.  

Photographer Dirk-Jan Visser reveals the human tragedy of a country torn apart by war from the perspective of two football teams. The two teams FK Qarabag Agdam and FK Karabakh Stepanakert symbolize the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus.

With the aid of Armenia, in 1994 the region broke away from Azerbaijan, but to date is not recognized as an independent state by any country. For three years Dirk-Jan Visser and writer Arthur Huizinga followed six people who are central to the exhibition and accompanying photo book. Their lives are exemplary for the daily lives of players and coaches, fighters and refugees, wives and widows. 

 You can read more about the exhibition here. 

Baku, Azerbaijan - 2009

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ArtHind MezainaOFFSIDE - Football in Exile, Dirk-Jan VisserComment