The Photographic I - Other Pictures

The Photographic is a two-part group exhibition spread over two years that aims to gauge the significance of photography today. The first part, Other Pictures, comprises new and existing work by around 30 international artists and photographers. It demonstrates an intergenerational concern with the photographic image at a moment when its discourse is subject to a process of historicization, particularly in the context of the image fluxes in the new media. And yet photography is undoubtedly ubiquitous. The title therefore indicates that the exhibition does not address a particular medium or technique, but instead a condition: “the photographic” might be that contemporary condition under which we are living.

In this first part, S.M.A.K. focuses on the power of the still image as something recalcitrant that slows down our gaze and examines our surroundings in a visual manner. Other Pictures explores artists’ specific visions of and relations with the world, the artistic practice of photography, and the public. The photographic image is approached as a view of and bearer of social developments, witnessing the process of globalization since the 1960s. Motives in the exhibition, such as the body, its pose and its surroundings, offer us a reflection on how body, landscape and architecture have been given an augmented economic role and have been subjected to tighter discipline. Attention is then also drawn, quite emphatically, to photography’s role as a potentially liberating space in today’s arts.

As much as photography structures and alters our experience of the world, it has also increasingly become part of its infrastructure. Technological developments in the scientific, civil and military fields, for instance, transform the medium and, in their turn, evoke and infiltrate contemporary artistic practices. The development of global networks has profoundly altered the circulation and production not only of images, but also of ideas, capital and information. When considering the contemporary use of photography, it is necessary to have an understanding of its social agency, which, alongside the medium’s affective qualities, also takes these recent developments into account.

The following artists and photographers are among those engaged for this first part, The Photographic I – Other Pictures: Lewis Baltz, Tina Barney, Mohamed Bourouissa, Moyra Davey, Marc De Blieck, Sara Deraedt, Patrick Faigenbaum, Peter Fraser, Alair Gomes, Jitka Hanzlová, Roni Horn, Stephanie Kiwitt, Aglaia Konrad, Jochen Lempert, Zoe Leonard, Jean-Luc Moulène, Zanele Muholi, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Trevor Paglen, Doug Rickard, Torbjørn Rødland, Michael Schmidt, Arne Schmitt, Allan Sekula, Ahlam Shibli, Malick Sidibé, Dayanita Singh, Wolfgang Tillmans, Marc Trivier and Tobias Zielony.

Roma Publications in Amsterdam will publish an exhibition magazine. A programme in which the public can explore the subject in greater depth is also being developed in association with the Thinking Tools research group (KASK, Antwerp). Two film contributions by Harun Farocki will provide further context to the exhibition.

The Photographic I – Other Pictures is organized by Martin Germann, Tanja Boon and Steven Humblet.