Young photographic positions from Southeast Asia
Contributors:
- Alvin Lau (*1994, Malaysia)
- Amrita Chandradas (*1987, Singapore)
- Muhammad Fadli (*1984, Indonesia)
- Dennese Victoria (*1991, Philip- pines)
- Kanel Khiev (*1988, Cambodia)
- Dwi Asrul Fajar (*1986, Indo- nesia)
- Elliott Koon (*1980, Malaysia)
- Watsamon Tri-yasakda (*1990, Thailand)
- Lee Chang Ming (*1990, Singapore)
- Geric Cruz (*1985, Philippines)
- Linh Pham (*1991, Vietnam)
- Yu Yu Myint Than (*1984, Myanmar)
Curator:
- Vignes Balasingam (Obscura Festival Penang, Malaysia)
The group exhibition we will have been young shows twelve young photographic positions from eight countries in Southeast Asia that deal with questions of youth, identity and the ambivalence of the future. As visual photo essays, they illuminate social phenomena in the context of economic progress and globalization in the photographers‘ home countries and also arouse awareness of longings and injustices within these realities.
The photo series shown were created during the Photography Masterclass 2016/17 in Penang, Malaysia under the direction of Jörg Brüggemann and Tobias Kruse of the OSTKREUZ - Agentur der Fotografen. Initiative for the exhibition was given by Goethe-Institute Malaysia. After stops in Jakarta, Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Germany and Hanoi we will have been young can now be seen in Ho-Chi-Minh-City.
Rolf Stehle, Director of the Goethe-Institut Malaysia about "we will have been young":
„The result is a socio-cultural kaleidoscope on the life of young people in the vibrant context of economic progress and globalisation in these South-East Asian countries. The visual stories deal with diverse issues - online dating and the transformation of relationships, illnesses and their psychological effects, family constellations and identities, nostalgia and transience, social housing and urbanization, psycho-social challenges, the marginalisation of aboriginals, homosexuality and the search for a sense of belonging, club scenes as a sign of revolt, creative Vespa clubs, gender-identity in school children, abuse and the longing for a feeling of home. The series of photographs address social phenomena, and through their subject matter and aesthetics we are invited to engage with them, to confront them. The photographs are based on reality, but at the same time they look beyond it, transcend it and create notions of other realities, opposing concepts and new worlds. In doing so, they ask questions about the future and, in their aesthetic context, create implicit concepts of the future coexistence of people, social systems and living environments. Powerfully, the role of the viewer in the future implied in these images, cannot be easily dismissed.(...).“
Previous press review of the travelling exhibition "we will have been young" and about selected series:
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