Tania Boukal Born in 1976 in Austria, lives and works in Wien, Austria www.boukal.at In our regions, wool or knit-wear is most of the time associated with cosiness, warmth and a secure environment. Tapestry in our societies is present since antiquity, we garnished the walls with it, not just to preserve us from cold and noise, but also to document or morally educating people. While the tapestries of the Middle Ages often represents images of paradise, the works of Tania Boukal refer to the reality of immigrants when they decide to settle here and find themselves in what is often the opposite of a heavenly setting. The images show those people who live on the margins of society. They struggle to preserve their dignity, seeking a better life for themselves and their families and are resigned to prostitution and racism. The titles of the works refer to places where the photo were taken. But regardless of this, most of the time they are interchangeable. Tania Boukal All that Glitter and Gold series, 2010 Knitted fabric on frame Memory Lab III - Traces I 25.04.2015-05.07.2015 I European Month of Photography I Cercle Cité I 1 I Jonathan Olley Born in 1967 in UK , lives and works in London, UK www.jonathanolley.com John Olley is committed to documentary photography; moreover his works strongly dedicated to the most objective illustration of things “the way they are” rather than “the way we would like them to be”. Although he is able to overcome the actuality of photo-reportage through motif selection and subtle interpretation, it is immediately clear that we are dealing with very distinctive aesthetics. Olley’s approach is often topographical and based on the long-term working processes which lead to extensive exploration of historical, social and cultural phenomena of chosen geographical places and milieus. The Forbidden Forest (2009) looks at the far-reaching effects of warfare on the landscape. The images focus on the battle for Verdun, in North-East France known as the “Zone Rouge” which covers approximately 1200 square kilometres, with limited public access since the armistice of 1919. During World War I, these hills and gorges were cratered by a continuous four year-long, artillery bombardment more intense than any before and any since. The mature beech forests that cover the hills were home to some of the Great War’s most bitter fighting; as many as 150 shells fell for every square meter of this battlefield. As well as being the longest battle of the Great War, the Battle of Verdun also has the ignominy of being the first test of modern industrialised slaughter. Jonathan Ollay The Forbidden Forect series, 2009 Photographs Memory Lab III - Traces I 25.04.2015-05.07.2015 I European Month of Photography I Cercle Cité I 2 I Henning Rogge Born in 1977 in Germany, lives and works in Germany www.henningrogge.de The photographic research of Henning Rogge demonstrates that even 70 years after World War II, the traumas are not completely eliminated. With camera equipment, conductors and navigational equipment he roams the German province, wanders through forests, goes over fields and meadows. With the help of aerial photographs he identifies the places where bombs and grenades have driven funnels into the earth. The photograph itself is a soundless, motionless medium, it stresses the aura of times forgotten; recording, the past gives the inconspicuous place a different dignity. Henning Rogge’s approach is guided by formal, artistic rigour. Most frequently from a slightly elevated position, the lens approaches the crater, producing images of closeness and simultaneously preserving a distance. The viewer hovers over the imaginary place of the photographer and cannot move forward or backwards. Henning Rogge #45 (Bulau), 2013 Bombenkrater series Analogue C-print Memory Lab III - Traces I 25.04.2015-05.07.2015 I European Month of Photography I Cercle Cité I 3 I Attila Floszmann Born in 1982 in Hungary, lives and works in Budapest, Hungary The series Silence after the revolution (2011) consists of 24 images of an old Polaroid Sx-70 and Polaroid 600 which responded to the various impacts of desert weather in a peculiar way. Its relative dullness and the grain of the film lends a sort of an intimacy to the pictures which he felt was definitely necessary to preserve since the pictures were taken in an environment where the wounds of soul were still bleeding. The pictures do not reflect the fact that the photographer was risking his life by traveling to regions where conflicts between rival factions were alive and on one occasion he escaped immediate execution only because of his Hungarian passport. The idea of the project is to place the events of the war in Libya into an alternative visual context in which the events of the Arab Spring appear not as raw material for reports but as signs going beyond the current and topical. Attila Floszmann Silence after the Revolution series Framed Polaroid Memory Lab III - Traces I 25.04.2015-05.07.2015 I European Month of Photography I Cercle Cité I 4 I Sarah Schönfeld Born in 1979 in Germany, lives and works in Berlin, Germany www.sarahschoenfeld.de In her series Send me a postcard, Sarah Schönfeld shows pictures of her visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp ( 2003) . In a very personal statement she made this comment online: “No one can really speak about Auschwitz; each posture is inappropriate or grotesque. The arrogance of silent laughter in this context – a self-portrait – seems to me the only naïvely and arbitrary act which opens up a space by its own failure to give meaning to the hopelessness of the situation. And this is the voice of the Greek tragedy that always means guilt.” Is there a moral obligation to preserve Auschwitz of profanation by tourism, to consider as totally inappropriate the renovation of the site, the reconstruction of Auschwitz? Or is this an indissoluble ulcer that we must keep alive, so that everyone can continue to visit it? By installing hot dog stands and removable shithouses, through preservation and conservation we take away its power and menace. The monster is tamed and perhaps will allow us all the more to sense the dark side of human existence. The postcard is a tamed, trivialized form of paradise, the “other place”. But one could also write a post-card from hell. » Sarah Schönfeld Send me a Postcard series, 2003 Memory Lab III - Traces I 25.04.2015-05.07.2015 I European Month of Photography I Cercle Cité I 5 I Tatiana Lecomte Born in 1971 en France, lives ant works in Wien, Austria www.lecomte.mur.at The photographic work of Tatiana Lecomte underlies a fundamental concern: What can photography? To what extent is it able to give a reading to a historical event? Her photos challenge the claim of photography to be a true picture of reality and she asks a fundamental question: to what extent does photography contribute to the creation of historical narrative, to what extent does it allow the construction of history? Her works relies often on found images or on image archives. She also travels to precise locations - the picture here represent the French village of Oradour burned down by the Gestapo at the end of the war with most people locked in the church - to «photographically» search for traces that link to criminal behavior. The blurred aspect of photo or the removal of specific picture elements are characteristics of her style that force the viewer to consider the picture differently, so that the emotion aroused by the image contributes more to the memory effect than could have done the representation of reality. Often, it is in an idyllic landscape or in a low-key image where evil manifests its presence. The meaning of a picture is a mental construct, photography does not give to see reality but participates in the construction of memory in its own way. Tatiana Lecomte wins the «European Month of Photography Arendt Award». Tatiana Lecomte Oradour series, 2007-2009 C-print Memory Lab III - Traces I 25.04.2015-05.07.2015 I European Month of Photography I Cercle Cité I 6 I
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