№

“War turns people into numbers.” In this sentence a brutal truth is condensed: in warlike states of exception, the individual is reduced to a function, a numerical identifier, a potential victim. The violence of war manifests not only in physical destruction, but also in the reduction of the person to measurable, countable units – a necessary for organized mass murder. Bratkov’s Nr. points to this practice without overt exposition. It is atmospherically palpable – in the exposed state of those waiting, in the camera’s gaze, in the bureaucratic soundscape. War and flight, control and powerlessness, hope and dehumanization: these tensions interlock in the work in subtle ways.

Video, 3 min.

Installation view, Kommunale Galerie, Berlin, 2025