With / Against the Flow: Contemporary Photographic Interventions

with / against the flow: Contemporary Photographic Interventions
#1 Viktoria Binschtok
#2 Michael Schäfer
Curated by Florian Ebner, Christin Müller

An exhibition of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), Stuttgart.

Opens Friday June 28, 2019, 6.30 p.m.
On till Saturday July 13, 2019, 10.00 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.
Presenting works by Viktoria Binschtok and Michael Schäfer, this exhibition highlights two photographers whose work reflects in different ways the world of media images and the ‘digital turn’. While Michael Schäfer analyses images from the news and from entertainment, Viktoria Binschtok takes a look at new channels and functions of communication via images in the internet age. Both photographers thus continue in the tradition of a strong artistic interest in the mass media which began in the 1970s. They present a vital and fascinating understanding of the image as it is represented in the algorithmic age.

Event Schedule:
Friday July 12, 2019, 6.30 p.m. - Discussion on Contemporary Photography in India + Germany
With Christin Müller & Pushpamala N.
Moderator: Suresh Jayaram

Situating with / against the flow in an evolving Indian context, we are delighted to host a dialogue on Contemporary Photography. An exchange of ideas between two esteemed curators, Christin Müller, who has co-curated with / against the flow and Bangalore artist/curator Pushpamala N., who curated the recently concluded Chennai Photo Biennale. The curators will present their views on contemporary photography in their respective countries and will then engage in a dialogue, moderated by visual artist, art historian and bangaloREsidency host Suresh Jayaram of 1 Shanthi Road. The audience is invited to participate in the discussion.
 
Guided Tour by Christin Müller
Sunday July 14, 2019, 5.30 p.m.
It is a privilege to have the co-curator walk us through the exhibition, offering her expert perspective and interesting insights.
 
Finissage
Sunday July 14, 2019, 6.30 p.m.
The exhibition culminates with a Finissage at which the President of ifa Prof. Ulrich Raulff will be present and will address the gathering.

About the Speakers:

© Lys Yolanda Seng

Christin Müller (*1983, lives in Leipzig) majored in cultural studies and works as a freelance curator and writer. She was a research fellow in the programme Museum Curators for Photography, followed by her curation of the exhibition Cross Over – Photography of Science + Science of Photography in the Fotomuseum in Winterthur. Since 2013 Christin Müller is assistant to the photography collector Thomas Walther and since 2014 she has a teaching appointment in the art history department at the University of Leipzig. Together with Florian Ebner she was the artistic director of the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen und Heidelberg in 2017. Since 2015 they have curated the exhibition series with / against the flow: Contemporary Photographic Interventions commissioned by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa).

© Ashok Vish

Suresh Jayaram is an artist, art historian, arts administrator and curator from Bangalore. He is the Founder and Director of Visual Art Collective/1Shanthi Road Studio, an international artist’s residency and alternative art space in Bangalore, India. He obtained his BFA in painting from the College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat 1990 and MFA from M.S. University, Baroda in 1992 in Art Criticism. He taught Art History at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat in Bangalore and later went on to become the Dean from 2005-2007. He was a 2007-10 Art Think South Asia Fellow at Skulpturenpark, Berlin. Some of his significant work has included research, curation and the compilation of a monograph for the 2011 ‘Krumbiegel Project’, a public history/art project that looked at the life of Gustav Herman Krumbiegel, a German horticulturist and urban planner of significance in South India. He is currently involved in art practice, urban mapping, archiving, curation and arts education. His keen interest in environmental and urban developmental issues influences his work.

© Pushpamala

Pushpamala N., born in Bangalore, 1956 has been called “the most entertaining artist-iconoclast of contemporary Indian art”. She is known for her strongly feminist work and for her rejection of authenticity and embracing of multiple realities. Starting off her career as a sculptor, Pushpamala began using photography and video in the mid-1990s, creating tableaux and photoromances in which she casts herself in various roles. Interested in history and the idea of cultural memory, she cites a wide range of references in her series of masquerades where she simultaneously inhabits and questions familiar frames from art history, photography, film, theatre and popular culture, thereby placing herself as the artist at the centre of social and political inquiry. Pushpamala N. lives and works in Bangalore after having lived periodically in different Indian cities. She exhibits widely in India and internationally, and speaks often at seminars and conferences.