ANNE ZAHALKA Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo in Baden, Austria 

June 25, 2025

Major public photographic installations by Anne Zahalka are on show in Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo, Austria, from 01.06. – 5.10.25. As Europe’s largest photography festival, the open-air gallery is 7 kilometres long with 1,500 large-format images installed across the gardens and old town of Baden. The 2025 edition of the festival is dedicated to AUSTRALIA & THE NEW WORLD, investigating the relationship between Australian photographers and their environment.

In her latest work, Future Past Present Tense, Anne Zahalka revisits the notion of diorama: a panoramic painting on canvas. The diorama is a three dimensionally constructed museum display with taxidermic animals and artificial plants created in the foreground, usually presented in darkened rooms to give the illusion of reality and movement through the play of light. Inspired both by the naturalists of yesteryear and fictional artists, she uses photography to draw attention to the drastic changes in Tasmanian ecosystems and the role of humans in the degradation, or preservation, of this environment. The festival says: “In these images, exhibited for the first time in France, Anne Zahalka constantly manipulates and exploits the past to better understand the present and thus perhaps provide insight into the future. Through them, we are encouraged to reflect on the ways in which we interact with the world – and the world we leave for future generations.”

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