Kategorie: Archive

The event will be in English.

Joan Fontcuberta: What exactly did Darwin miss? Photography in the age of iconophagy

The exhibition Joan Fontcuberta: What Darwin Missed presents a new series specially conceived for the Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung by internationally recognized Catalan photographer, curator, essayist, and lecturer Joan Fontcuberta (b. 1955). The artist is renowned for his playful way of engaging audiences but also addressing the boundaries between reality and fiction. His works reflect on the role of photography in representing reality and frequently deal critically—but always humorously and provocatively—with the image in scientific disciplines such as botany or zoology.

For the current exhibition, Fontcuberta engaged intensively with the foundation’s archive and resumed a research project Alfred Ehrhardt had started in 1938 for the Natural History Museum in Hamburg but was unable to complete due to historical circumstances. Fontcuberta’s research quest in the footsteps of Charles Darwin for a special species of coral called Cryptocnidaria serves as a narrative starting point out of which the exhibition develops, one based entirely on the relationship between fact and speculation, science and art—not everything the eye sees should be accepted uncritically as truth, and not everything that claims to be scientific is necessarily correct.

In conversation with Christiane Stahl, Fontcuberta will carry out how his new work aims to encourage us not to succumb to the persuasive illusion of images. In addition to explaining the project, the talk will include the subject of iconophagy. Screen images have no physical substance, they are proliferating, dematerializing and entering the category of “non-things” (Byung-Chul Han). But even in the non-material dimension of the image, that of pure information, it can be said that images have always eaten each other, a hypothesis that according to the Catalan artist “fully addresses the legacy of Aby Warburg”.

Admission free. Please register in advance at: info@aestiftung.de

Tour will be in English.

The tour includes discussions on the works of all three artists of the exhibition Imagine Another Perspective, with an in-depth profile of Mandy Barker, an award-winning photographic artist and explorer. Barker’s work, involving marine plastic debris for over 15 years, has received global recognition. Collaborating with marine biologists and environmentalists, Barker raises awareness about plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, high-lighting the harmful effects on marine life, climate change, and ultimately ourselves – leading viewers to take action by considering their plastic use. Her work has been published in over 50 different countries and featured in respected journals such as National Geographic, TIME, The Guardian, The Financial Times, the Smithsonian, The New Scientist, The Explorer’s Journal, UNESCO, The British Journal of Photography, VOGUE, and the World Wildlife Fund. Her series SOUP specifically references the mass accumulation of plastic in the North Pacific Ocean known as the Garbage Patch.

The tour will also include discussions on the works of Maija Tammi, an artist and researcher based in Helsinki who explores the threshold between mortality and immortality, science and art, through her photography and video works, and Caleb Charland, who uses photography to explore unseen energies around us. Charland combines his curiosity for science with a constructive approach to image-making, utilizing everyday objects and fundamental forces.

Curator, Peggy Sue Amison is the Artistic Director of East Wing, a platform for contemporary photography founded in Doha, Qatar.

Mandy Barker is an award-winning British photographer whose has been exhibited world-wide, in such prestigious institutions as MoMA, the United Nations headquarters in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Science & Technology Park in Hong Kong. In 2019, she participated in the ‘Henderson Island Plastic Pollution Expedition’, recognized as an ‘Explorers Club Flag Expedition’, a rare honour previous given to missions like Apollo 11. This expedition involved recording data and photographing marine plastic pollution, the findings are now part of the archival records accessible to modern explorers and scholars.

Admission free. Please register in advance at: info@aestiftung.de

The event will be in German.

We ask for advance registration at: wirsinddabei@stiftungsapero.de

The event will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

Tour will be in English.

This tour will include discussions on the works of all three artists of the exhibition Imagine Another Perspective, with an in-depth profile of Maija Tammi’s series Immortal’s Birthday (2017 – 2020).  Tammi, an award winning artist and researcher based in Helsinki, explores the threshold between mortality and immortality, science and art, through her photography and video works. She regularly collaborates with marine biologists and musicians, delving into various aspects of science, aesthetics, sickness, time, and (im)mortality. In her series, Immortal’s Birthday, Tammi investigates the hydra, a small fresh-water organism belonging to the class Hydrozoa. Unlike most animals, the hydra can clone itself and regenerate from a cluster of cells without aging; all its cells renew every twenty days, a phenomenon unique among animals. Tammi describes the hydra as a creature that seems straight out of science fiction but is, in fact real. Immortal’s Birthday continues Tammi’s exploration of humanity’s place in the continuum of existence and ageing.

The tour will include discussions on the works of Mandy Barker, who has used photography for over 15 years as a tool to raise awareness about the global issues of plastic pollution, and Caleb Charland, who uses photography to explore unseen energies around us. Charland combines his curiosity for science with a constructive approach to image-making, utilizing everyday objects and fundamental forces.

Curator, Peggy Sue Amison is the Artistic Director of East Wing, a platform for contemporary photography founded in Doha, Qatar.

Maija Tammi is a Finnish artist and Doctor of Arts, whose photographs and videos have been exhibited extensively in Paris, Berlin, Rome, London, New York, and Tokyo. She has published five books and her artworks have been acquired by important institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Contemporary Art Museum Kiasma in Helsinki, and National Portrait Gallery in London.

Admission free. Please register in advance at: info@aestiftung.de

The event will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The event will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The event will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The tour will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The tour will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The tour will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The tour will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The event will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The tour will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de

The tour will be in German. We ask for advance registration at: info@aestiftung.de