Curated by Thomas Kellner, a leading German artist in conceptual and experimental photography, this exhibition explores numerous themes and styles showing the diversity of thought and approach in contemporary photography in Germany.
In his body of work, International Orange, Daniel Schumann uses colour portraiture of couples and families to present the diversity of those living in the LGBT community in San Francisco. In Inner Space Vita Dirk Hanus uses surrealism as a representative vehicle for a discussion on the lives of the European middle class and Jutta Schmidt’s Freischwimmer takes swimming and public pools as a metaphor in questioning the potential for passiveness in Germany society.
In her series Backstage Heroes, photographer Katharina Mouratidi uses a Rococo style parlor chair as a prop to contrast the pomposity and power of the ruling class against the subjects of her portraits; the 40 laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, which are given for courageous personal commitment and social change.
Roger Eberhard’s Shanty Town Deluxe is a portrait of this luxury hotel in South Africa, which takes the concept of “shanty” and grotesquely twists it to take on the cache of luxury. No Shoes to Dance With is Anna Katharina Zeitler’s exploration of the revered, yet lonely life of the professional ballerina.
After a year living in Los Angeles Frank Rothe presents a portrait of what he sees as a city with No More Angels. Frauke Thielking’s Ready, Steady, Go focuses on the multiple spaces that humans inhabit; internally and externally. Gesche Wuerfel’s Basement Sanctuaries features a series of portraits of basement dwellings that are used by building superintendents in Manhattan, spaces that are largely decorated by the items each building’s tenants discard.And in Everything You Didn’t Want to Know About Me A Quintology of Diaries, Part 5 Ferit Kuyas expands on this series of visual diaries that use polaroids taken by the artist in the mid-nineties.
Photographers:
Daniel Schumann International Orange
Vita Dirk Hanus Inner Space
Jutta Schmidt Freischwimmer
Katharina Mouratidi Backstage Heroes – Alternative Nobel Prize Laureates
Roger Eberhard Shanty Town Deluxe
Anna Katharina Zeitler No Shoes to Dance With
Frank Rothe No More Angels
Frauke Thielking Ready, Steady, Go
Gesche Wuerfel Basement Sanctuaries
Mehmet Ferit Kuyas Everything you didn’t want to know about me: A Quintology of Diaries, Part 5
EXHIBITION
Contemporary German Photography
Curator: Thomas Kellner
Festival Pingyao 2014
September 19 – 25 2014
Pingyao, China
