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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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