next 1 - discussing photography
A New Platform for Young European Photographers
Ville Lenkkeri: Looking out of a Museum Window, 2004, Prague, 90x120cm. Courtesy of the artist / Photo: Ville Lennkeri
Within the framework of Kulturhauptstadt Europa RUHR.2010 "next 1" offers a platform for exhibitions, discussions and conferences on the subject of photography. Six institutions in the Ruhrvalley invite you to be part of this in May 2010. For one month they will be staging exhibitions by young European photographers in their venues and in the public space.
Between 17 and 22 May artists, critics, curators, teachers, and the public will be able to get together. On top of this, in lectures, at roundtable discussions and a symposium, European schools will introduce their training programmes for photographers and curators. Non-commercial photography institutions will introduce themselves, students from various European countries will present the exhibition project they have developed as part of a workshop at their respective universities and colleges.
Six institutions from Essen, Bochum and Dortmund have joined forces as part of the initiative by Ute Eskilden, curator of the photographic collections of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, stage the first next: Kunsthaus Essen, Kunstverein Ruhr, Galerie Schütte from Essen, Galerie m Bochum, Folkwang University Essen and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund. The infrastructure already present in the Ruhr Area with its internationally renowned training institutions and museums, exhibition spaces and private galleries provides an excellent opportunity for the exchange with numerous guests: In May 2010, the platform "next 1 – discussing photography" will welcome young critics, curators and photographers. Focusing on three cities during the week of 17-22 May will allow participants to gain an overview of the photography scene of the Ruhr Area.
The "Curating Photography" event which will take place in Situation Kunst, a museum of the Ruhr University Bochum, will showcase international programmes for curators. In the evening, for the opening of the exhibition, Galerie m invites you to "Do you see me? Portraiture in Painting, Photography and Film", featuring a discussion between London critic Lisa Le Feuvre and the artists Caroline von Grone, Frank Höhle, Oliver Godow and Melanie Manchot.
The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund will host an open discussion by critics as part of the exhibition of students' works, which will also be open in the evening. This exhibition is the result of an exchange programme with the Rietveld Akademie, Amsterdam, and the School of Art, Media & Design, University of Wales, Newport, and forms part of a long-term international network between these and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, and the Folkwang University Essen.
In Essen, the platform’s geographical centre, there will be a varied programme of exhibitions and different ways of addressing photo art.
At the Kunstverein Ruhr "Perecs Büro" (Perec’s Office) by Daniel Blaufuks will be shown, a site-specific installation, curated by Sergio Mah. It asks fundamental questions about photography, archiving and fictionality. In the same venue non-commercial institutions like Paradox from Rotterdam, Photoworks from Brighton, and the Langhans Archive from Prague will present different forms of project promotion under the title "Supporting Photography". The Kunsthaus Essen has chosen to present three photographers – Jason Evans, Mark Neville and Mirko Martin, whose works will be shown in rapid succession.
Curator Ben Burbridge, who will be introduced by Jason Evans, will also show an experimental film. Galerie Schütte from Essen has given curator Rémi Faucheux carte blanche: Under the title "Fake and Real" he will invite Ville Lenkkeri, Mathieu Bernard-Reymond and Andrew Phelps, all members of the European photographers’ network POC, to the Ruhr Area. At the same time there will be the chance to learn more about how the organisation, with its 21 members, works.
In parallel, the "Teaching Photography" symposium with its eminent European professors, run by the Wüstenrot Foundation and the Museum Folkwang, will take place at the Museum Folkwang. For the first time a photo prize, sponsored by Steidl Publishers, will be awarded.
The presentation of numerous ongoing photo projects, projections and interferences with the public space will round off an international programme, which deals with both theoretical and practical aspects of photography.
Exclusive sponsor for photography: Savings Banks Finance Group