Exhibition

Sharbendu De is an Indian artist born in 1978. In the folk legend of the indigenous Tibeto-Burman Lisu community, a flood had carried away the orphaned siblings Lecha and Secha from their village in the mountain forests. Alone, they traveled for years in search of survivors. Since no others were found, they eventually asked God for permission to become man and wife. This folklore contains all the archetypal features that still resonate with the Lisus today – distress, loneliness, and the search for belonging. The North Indian minority lives in the inaccessible jungle of the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve (NNP), about 150 kilometers from the nearest town of Miao. The establishment of the national park by the Indian government without involving the Lisu in 1983 led to decades of marginalization of the Lisu.

Despite all the adversity, they live symbiotically with nature and enjoy its secrets as an autonomous community. They want to find a place where myth and modernity can coexist without giving up their culture: losing the forest as their home would be unthinkable.

»In my seven-year work (2013-19) on the Lisu community, I borrowed from dream symbolism and magical realism and based my practice on ethnographic research, extensive fieldwork, journalistic processes, popular customs, and a poetic aesthetic to sensorially capture their feelings and relationship with nature – the intangible cultural heritage that defines them and distinguishes them from urban hyper-capitalist societies. Through creative collaborative imagination, 'Imagined Homeland' undermines the colonial paternalistic gaze and shifts the boundaries of imagination. It advocates for a perspective beyond anthropocentrism and serves as a call for urban audiences to return to coexisting with nature.« (Sharbendu De, *1978 in Indien)

In the last decade of human-induced climate change, cultural interest in non-human life and biological diversity has deepened. Within Mia Dudek's (*1989 in Sosnowiec, Poland) latest body of work, fruiting bodies are of fundamental importance as dynamic and organic actors. They are capable of overcoming and breaking through barriers and limitations that structure the physical world. The images in the »Fruiting Bodies« series (2020-2021) are presented in the simple, smooth, and commercial style of product photography. Oyster mushrooms are shown up close and alone against a neutral studio background, as if they were the latest smartphone or sneaker. They are lush, exotic, and deeply present. The gills of the portrayed mushrooms display shades of white and brown, as well as pink and fleshy tones.

In addition, the Polish artist Mia Dudek continuously examines the relationship between the body and the structure of brutalist mega-block architecture in her series »Inhabited« (2020-2021) and »Skin Studies« (2010-2019), while exploring concepts such as intimacy, displacement, and inhabitation. In »Skins Studies« »the veins in the skin evoke a sense of fragility and refer to a translucent and physical surface that responds to touch. She confronts not only her photographic works, but also the viewer, with works of a large concrete structure, in which Dudek has reproduced the texture of skin and metamorphosed and embodied sensory awareness into an unyielding, lifeless object …« (Ruth Blees Luxemburg).

Sandra Kantanen (*1974 in Helsinki, Finland) has been exploring the world of landscape photography for two decades. Her fascination with creating idealized, surreal landscapes stems from her inspiration from Chinese landscape painting and the desire to understand their perspective on nature. »During my stay in Asia, I learned that most of the sacred mountains they had depicted for thousands of years had been almost completely destroyed by pollution and tourism,« says the artist. Hence her interest in places that have been shaped by the past or environmental disasters.

However, her path runs in a gray area between eastern perspectives and western romanticism. Aesthetically, she questions what we as a culture hold ideal. In her work, Kantanen utilizes her painterly sense, diffuse light, and her ability to manipulate digital images. In processing the photos, she sometimes leaves them as they were taken or stretches the pixels so much that they seem to be dripping with color. The photographs of the Finnish artist are best described in her own words as »Mindscapes«.

Light plays a significant role in the works of Eeva Karhu (*1980 in Kirkkonummi, Finland). Similar to the repeated motif studies of impressionist painters, she photographs the same path during her daily walks at different lighting conditions. The series reveals a surprisingly wide range of changing colors and moods. Through recording her own movements and the longer cycles of nature, her works interweave into a personal study of perception and its fundamental connections to space and time.

»I study this cyclical movement. I participate in it by walking the same path in a circle for a year. As I walk, my feet find the rhythm of the path. The camera is my eye. It captures moments between what I see and myself. I capture the time I will soon walk through while experiencing the timelessness of its passing. By layering all these photographs, they form a single image that documents my journey and captures the passing time.« Karhu's »En plein air« (2021) means »outdoors« when translated. She says her feelings and thoughts color her view, influence the atmosphere around her, and play a role in how she interprets her surroundings – she and nature are »in constant dialogue.«

Karhu uses a collage technique to create her composite images, intentionally not blending any of the layers but selectively choosing the parts she believes will enhance the final image. The way she “paints” with light visually resembles brushstrokes. Upon closer inspection, it resembles a photograph rather than a painting, as one can see all the tiny photographic details. The end result of her unique process is a timeless vision of nature.

»I used to compress time, now I collect fragments of it."«

(Eeva Karhu)

Leonard Suryajaya (*1988, Indonesia) uses photography to explore the boundaries of intimacy, community, and family. In elaborately staged photographs with overflowing, competing patterns and colors, Leonard Suryajaya creates absurd but loving tableaus that feature himself, his family, and his community. Many of Suryajaya's investigations stem from the uniqueness of his upbringing as an Indonesian citizen of Chinese descent, a Buddhist raised in Christian schools in a predominantly Muslim country, and someone who has moved away from his family and his culture's definitions of love and family. His works demonstrate how life is permeated not only by one's own emotional attachments, but also by larger external stories such as exile, religion, citizenship, duty, and belonging.

Suryajaya involves his friends and family in his photo project, encouraging them to take ever wilder combinations and poses. The result is tender and critical photographs that are intertwined with struggles over familial authority and individual identity. In all of these works, the ebb and flow of belonging and freedom are palpable in even the smallest details. (David J. Getsy, Goldabelle McComb Finn)

Jesus Torío (*1992 in Jaén, Spain) is an Andalusian artist who works with the boundaries of photography and digital art. His images are influenced by Spanish culture, cinema, and painting.

Since 2015, he has been working as a nurse alongside his studies in art, ranging from the emergency room to psychiatry. A photo project was meant to document the personal stories of his patients with dementia. However, in February 2022, his color printer malfunctioned and printed the photographs in lines of magenta, cyan, and yellow. He decided to »repair« the images instead of the printer.

Scanned, re-colored, and digitally manipulated, the photographs are transformed into almost painterly images that create a new reality through a variety of saturated and hybrid silkscreen prints. A reality that had eluded him, much like the lost memories of his patients.

In 2022, he won the Dior Award Young Talents at Luma Arles with his series »Lost Memoirs«.