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How Soon Is Now
The works by 15 world’s most distinguished photographers selected by five artists and curators most revered in the world of modern art give an opportunity to outline an idea of the modern photography. Muscovites and guests of the capital have the chance to see these works in the Garage Center of Contemporary Culture that hosts the international exhibition How Soon Is Now. The exhibits were chosen by Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno and Beatrix Ruf. The exhibition was conceived to present the works nominated in 2010 for two pre-eminent photography awards — The Discovery Award and the LUMA Award. There is no photography for the sake of photography devoid of artistic meaning, a story or an idea.
Roe Ethridge employs all of his arsenal of the photography genres — fashion, advertising, landscape, documentary, portrait — to lead the spectators astray wondering whether they are looking at glossy commercial, satire or a realistic image. Roe Ethridge plays with the viewer: Where is the thin borderline between art and commercial photography? Peter Fischli and David Weiss are also prone to laugh at the spectator and give him an incentive to think: an unusual point of view can transform a platitude into something vastly different.
Contemporary art is a kind of magic: artists do not just show an image or tell a story, but giving something very simple at first sight manage to bring around most surprising reactions to the simple. What can be simpler than the 100 photographs by Hans-Peter Feldmann with his friend or relative on each of them? This renowned and influential artist introduced poetry to common photography. For three years he had been shooting these people in a manner that everyone of them is one year older (or younger) than the other creating a gallery of photographs starting with
The fine art photographer Taryn Simon presented by Hans Ulrich Obrist, director of her international projects, offers the viewer not merely artistic photography but a psychological study. The Innocents series documents the stories of individuals who served time in prison for violent crimes they did not commit. The images of the “criminals” and crime scenes are poignant, for example Mayes hiding beneath a mattress where the police found him (Mayese served 18 and a half out of the 80 years of imprisonment for rape, burglary and illegal behaviour).
Leigh Ledare presents an equally deep study of the common human drama of divorce. For three days he had been shooting his former wife in a country house, then the photographer Adam Fedderli, her present husband, worked with her. Ledare developed the film and faced the viewers with a ruthless and candid analysis two intimacies: he placed his story against a black background symbolizing the past, the Fedderli’s story against the white, mixing them with collages from magazine cuts and other elements, often provocative. No matter how intimate photographic imagery is and who it belongs to the spectators are lost their attention distracted by the provocative objects. And the contrast between black and white becomes less evident. But no matter how provocative contemporary art is, its goal remains the same — to awaken the best part of humanity hidden deep in its soul. The exhibition closes on February 6, 2011. |
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© 2010 Department of Foreign Economic |