Ann-Sofi Siden

17 January - 01 April 2002

As drivers on the road from Dresden to Prague cross the German border into the Czech Republic, they pass through the frontier town of Dubi. Prostitutes stand along the roadside, shrieking at the drivers of passing vehicles, "Warte Mal!" (Hey Wait).

Dubi, once a successful spa town, was transformed into a notorious destination for sex tourists from the West following the Velvet Revolution - the overthrow of Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1990.

Throughout 1999 the artist Ann-Sofi Sidén made prolonged trips to Dubi documenting her stay through photography, a written diary and a series of video interviews with the players in the business of prostitution: clients; police; pimps and the prostitutes themselves. They evoke a community, and reveal the way in which lives of individuals are bound up in the complexities of political history.

Image: Ann-Sofi Sidén 'Girls in and around Dubi', winter, 1999 © the artist.