Fotografie | Wartist

Wartist Presents: „Landscapes & Memory“ – Photos by Jo Röttger, Bavarian Army Museum (Ingolstadt)

On 28 May 2013, the exhibition „Landscapes & Memory“ by Hamburg-based photographer Jo Röttger will open at Bayerisches Armeemuseum (Bavarian Army Museum) in Ingolstadt. In 27 large-format photos with their picture language that reminds of romanticism, Röttger approaches landscapes and identity while addressing desire and alienation as well as the ongoing war in Afghanistan. A bilingual catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, curated by Martin Bayer (Wartist).

Marissa Roth: One Person Crying – Women and War (Berlin)

Sara Duvall mit einem Foto ihres Sohnes Aaron Reed, getötet im Irak, Chillicothe, Ohio 2005 (© Marissa Roth)

From 8 March until 3 April 2013, Berlin-based Willy-Brandt-Haus presents the exhibition One Person Crying: Women and War with photos by Marissa Roth. Since 1984, the Pulitzer Prize laureate (born in 1957 in Los Angeles) is dealing with this issue: back then, she travelled to the Yugoslav homeland of her Jewish grandparents who had been murdered in 1942 by Hungarian Fascists. In 1988, she was assigned by Los Angeles Times to portray Afghan women refugees. The subject remained crucial for her work: One Person Crying: Women and War addresses the effects of war on women within their respective societies. Continue reading

Martin Bayer: grounded

Photographer Martin Bayer (educated at Lette-Verein Berlin) addresses in his series grounded¹ of decommissioned military aircraft the perception of history and war, but also the aestheticisation of weapons. Detached from their historic context, the planes appear as objects or even sculptural. Neither the country of provenance, nor their operating period are discernible: was it an “attacker” or a “defender”, regarding our own classifications? Each war produces history and its own myths – grounded puts them in the background, making room for the viewers’ own associations.

grounded #4, C-print on alu-dibond, 50x75 cm (© 2012 Martin Bayer)

crashed, having a grounding (aircraft, pilot), fixed, earthed, but also sensible, justified ↩

Two Years Later – Arab Spring Under Fire? (BICC Bonn)

From 21 February until 30 April 2013, Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) presents photos by Ahmed Khalifa. On the occasion of the opening, a panel discussion on “Two Years Later – Arab Spring Under Fire?”will be held. Working at BICC as a peace researcher, Khalifa was taking photos and documenting the Arab Spring and the Egyptian presidential elections.

Nach der Schlacht, Nähe Tahrir-Platz, Kairo, November 2011 (© Ahmed Khalifa)

Bryan Adams: Exposed (Dusseldorf)

Private Karl Hinett (© 2011 Bryan Adams)

From 2 February until 22 May 2013, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf presents the photo exhibition Exposed with works by Bryan Adams, mostly known as musician. Many of the some 150 prints shown are glamour portraits of actors and fellow musicians. As maximum disruption to all those immaculate stars, Adams’s portraits of British war invalids are shown, too: a new series of impressive portraits of humans marked by war. Protheses replace the former limbs, monstrous scars refer to pain and injuries. According to Adams, these pictures are his way “to show the legacy of war”.

2 + 2: Phoenix Chemnitz – A Peace Day Exhibition (Chemnitzer Künstlerbund)

On 12 February 2013, the exhibition “2 + 2: Phoenix Chemnitz” will open on the premises of Chemnitzer Künstlerbund (association of Chemnitz’s artists). In this established format, two local and two external artists meet to address a specific subject. This time, the Chemnitz Friedenstag (Chemnitz Peace Day) is this issue: on 5 March 1945, Chemnitz was severly damaged – more than 2,100 people died in this bombing. How can this central event be remembered? What has contemporary art to say on war? Peggy Albrecht (* 1974) and Rose-Marie Güttler (* 1978) are the two local artists in this show, while Jan Bejšovec (* 1975, Konfliktstoff) and Martin Bayer (* 1971, Wartist) from Berlin provide external perspectives. Continue reading

Steve McCurry: In the Flow of Time (Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg)

From 19 January until 16 June 2013, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg shows the exhibition “In the Flow of Time – Photographs from Asia 1980-2011” with pictures by Steve McCurry. Thus, the colourful work by the US photographer (* 1950) will be presented in Germany for the very first time. The exhibition consists of 115 images by the Magnum photographer from countries such as Afghanistan, India, Cambodia, Kuwait, China or Nepal: “I see it was the vibrant colour of Asia that taught me to see and write in light”. While quite many of his photos appear to be arranged, he refuses this method and solely takes photos of moments happening, on which the exhibition’s title is referring to.

Ahmadi Oil Fields, Kuwait, 1991

Camels and oil fire, Kuwait, 1991

Sandwiched between blackened sand and sky, camels search for untainted shrubs and water in the burning oil fields of southern Kuwait. Their desperate foraging reflects the environmental plight of a region ravaged by the gulf war. Canby, Thomas Y. (August 1991)

"The first Gulf War taught us a new lesson in unconventional conflict. Saddam Hussain's army filled the skies of southern Kuwait with black poignant smoke from the burning oil lines. It was a powerful, debilitating symbol. And there was another. McCurry, who was covering the war, saw camels running in terror from the fires. Both images -whether of the fires or of the animals- were powerful representations of the chaos of that time. Central to McCurry's reputation as a journalist is his discipline to wait, and to search, and then to recognize the most telling image. The juxtaposition of the fire and smoke and camels running amok creates an icon of that war." - Phaidon 55

National Geographic, Vol. 180, No. 2, pgs. 2-3, August 1991, The Persian Gulf: After the Storm

Phaidon, 55, Iconic Images, final book_iconic, final print_milan, iconic photographs

As his army retreated from Kuwait, Saddam Hussein ordered the ignition of the oil fields that scatter the country. The effect was an ecological disaster of unimaginable scale. These camels are running from the fires. It is a futile effort: soon they will covered in oil that rails down from the sky.

Steve Mccurry_Book
Iconic_Book
Untold_book

final print_UrbanArt'12

final print_MACRO'11

Erik Schiemann: The Day is Coming (Sprechsaal, Berlin)

From 11 January to 10 March, Sprechsaal in Berlin presents photos by Erik Schiemann. The artist, born in 1963, is dedicating himself to the people, the traces and atmospheres in locations such as Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, Buchenwald and Belzec. His pictures show former inmates and young people, damaged lives and wounded landscapes. A selection of some 30 pictures from a series of 60 black and white photos will be shown: portraits, thoughts and landscapes from the past seven years, supplemented with parts of Schiemann’s work “c’était son monde” from 1995.

Margaret Bourke-White: Photographs 1930-1945 (Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin)

RESCAN Date taken: 4/1945 Description: American soldiers w. rifles kneeling to pray amidst bombing rubble in the main body of Cologne Cathedral as an Army chaplain holds first mass since it bombing on Mar. 2. City: Cologne Country: Germany cr: Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images OWNED

From 18 January until 14 April 2013, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin presents the exhibition “Photographs 1930-1945” with numerous works by American Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971). In a male-dominated world, she successfully fought for her position: she shot the title of the very first Life magazine of November 1936 and continued to work for this and other magazines. Not the least her pictures from World War II became famous throughout the world.

C/O Berlin moves to Amerikahaus to Berlin-Charlottenburg

For two long years, the future location – and thus the future – of the renowned photography gallery C/O Berlin was insecure. On 12 December 2012, a contract was signed that grants C/O Berlin from 1 September 2013 a new home in the former Amerika-Haus in Berlin-Charlottenburg, only a few yards away from Berlin Zoo station and the Museum of Photography. Congratulations and lots of success at the new location!

Sven Lemis (BIM), C/O Berlin-Vorstand Stephan Erfurt, Senatorin Sandra Scheeres, Staatssekretär André Schmitz, Burkhard Kieker (visitBerlin)