Archeology of Photography Foundation presents exhibition during Triennial of Photography in Hamburg between 6th and 15th of June. The exhibition features Polish photographers: Antoni Zdebiak, active in the 80s., and contemporary artist Magda Hueckel. The project focuses on performative photography as a way of self-exploration.
Antoni Zdebiak and Magda Hueckel document what is invisible and non-material. Although they belong to different generations and their experience varies, their works appears to be astonishingly close. For both of them the source of photography constitutes their personal story and the basic means of processing is their own body. This gesture towards themselves however is not a mere wish to direct attention to their own experience. The power of those photographs lies mostly in the very authentic presentation of individual experience, which goes beyond personal and becomes universal. They both touch the deepest secrets – of death, fear, losing oneself, and enlightenment. The photographed people are seen in the environments deprived of any traits of present. Taken out of a context of specific place and time they go even further beyond the individual experience.
Zdebiak’s and Hueckel’s works inscribe into the movement of performative photography. The photographs do not register performance as such, but the act, the process and finally the sequence have a special importance here. In performative photography the image remains the main goal, and all the events and activities are created for the purpose of this very image. The exhibition ‘Self-performance’ involves works whose authors are directors, choreographers and main characters at the same time. They bear the full control over the process of taking a photograph. Simultaneously, working entirely with their own selves, they do not trespass the borders other than those of their own.
The exhibition is a part of the ‘Living Archives’ project which has been realized by the Archeology of Photography Foundation (FAF) since 2009. This is a method of work which allows to present historical photography together with and in the context of contemporary artists’ works. Archeology of Photography Foundation invites to cooperation those artists whose projects enter a dialogue with works and themes undertaken by the artists whose archives it studies and takes care of. Since 2016 FAF has been conducting a research on Antoni Zdebiak’s archives. The exhibition ‘Self-performance’ presents photographs taken by the artist between 1984 and 1986 and combines them with the works of the contemporary artist Magda Hueckel who – apart from four of her older cycles – also shows the new project directly inspired by Zdebiak’s works.
curated by: Marta Szymańska
more information about Antoni Zdebiak: www.faf.org.pl
more information about Magda Hueckel: www.hueckel.com.pl
Exhibition presented: 6-15.06.2018
Gallery: Archeology of Photography Foundation in partnership with Circle Culture, Bismarckstraße 98, Hamburg
opening: 6.06, Wednesday, 4 pm
Exhibition presented: 6-15.06.2018
Gallery: Archeology of Photography Foundation in partnership with Circle Culture, Bismarckstraße 98, Hamburg
opening: 6.06, Wednesday, 4 pm
opening hours:
7-8.06: 14-19
9-10.06: 12-18
11-15.06: 16-19
meeting with author and curator: 9.06, Saturday, 1.30 pm
The exhibition is part of Satellite Programme of Triennial of Photography Hamburg.
The exhibition is part of Polish Paradise 2018 – Triennial of Photography of Photography Hamburg organized by Foundation of Visual Education and Fotofestiwal Lodz.
organizers:
Project Polish Paradise has been co-financed by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland
The exhibition Antoni Zdebiak and Magda Hueckel “Self-performance” has been co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw
