Darkside II: Photographic Power and Violence, Disease and Death Photographed
5 September–15 November 2009
Grüzenstrasse 44+45
CH-8400 Winterthur (Zurich)
Switzerland
Phone: +41 52 234 10 60
Darkside II
Photographic Power and Violence, Disease and Death Photographed
Last year’s exhibition “Darkside I – Photographic Desire and Sexuality Photographed” explored the role of photography in the imaging of sexuality and desire. Now the sequel, Darkside II, looks at the opposite end of the photographic spectrum, charting the path from the body as a veritable ‘picture of health’ to the body injured, disfigured or mutilated, in decline and decay.
This raises questions: Why is there an intimate affinity between photography and death? Why does violence attract images? The visual world of western culture is full of images of violence – both random outbursts of violence and military violence, regulative state violence. In a strange reversal, societies have shut away images of life-affirming, life-giving sexuality, banishing them to the fringes of obscurity, whereas images of dark and excessive violence have been brought into the light.
The reasons for this are many and complex. Images function in much the way as nouns do, by naming something: the tangibility of the portrayal comforts us, as a means of grasping the horror. Images of violence excite and electrify all those the horrors have passed by uninvolved. They read like memorials, like visual tablets of the law, when they portray state and judicially sanctioned violence. They claim to be enlightening, accusatory manifestos and moral appeals for an end to the horror they portray. And what is more: they sell. People are fascinated by shocking photographs of horror, terror, murder and branding, not only for the reasons already mentioned, but also because of a desire to glimpse at the dark side of civilised, orderly life. Having a part in something without actually participating – a kind of voyeurism of violence and its portrayals.
This in itself raises questions of exploitation, complicity and the reproduction of power structures on both sides of the camera and in the photograph. Do we need such images as a visual crutch to shore up our moral fibre? Darkside II addresses these and many other issues surrounding the visual approach to the body.
The exhibition will include works by many photographers and artists, including: Antoine d’Agata, Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Hans Danuser, Maria Friberg, Nan Goldin, F. Holland Day, Peter Hujar, Sally Mann, Enrique Metinides, Miyako Ishiuchi, Shirin Neshat, Gilles Peress, Walid Raad, Sophie Ristelhueber, Andres Serrano, Fazal Sheikh, Cindy Sherman, W. Eugene Smith, Weegee. Francesca Woodman etc.
Main sponsor: George Foundation
The exhibition catalogue is published by Steidl Verlag:
Darkside II –Photographic Power and Violence, Disease and Death Photographed. Edited by Urs Stahel, 368 pages, hardcover, with approx. 270 photographs and bilingual texts (English/German) by Ariella Azoulay, Johannes Binotto, Elisabeth Bronfen, Sander L. Gilman, Daniela Janser, Thomas Macho, Milena Massalongo, Bernd Stiegler, Katharina Sykora, Urs Stahel and Tan Wälchli.
On Monday, 21 September 2009 the Symposium “Too Brutal? Too Beautiful? Images of Violence and Beauty in Photography” will be held to accompany the exhibitions Darkside II – Photographic Power and Violence, Disease and Death Photographed at Fotomuseum Winterthur and Gotthard Schuh – A Kind of Infatuation at Swiss Foundation of Photography. With presentations by Oliviero Toscani, Ariella Azoulay, Valentin Groebner, Luisa Lambri, Elisabeth Lebovici and Martin Seidel, among others. Register now ( www.fotomuseum.ch/Symposium.472.0.html?&L=1 )
Still on display unil 11 October 2009 (Collection):
PRINTED MATTER – Set 6 from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur
( www.fotomuseum.ch/index.php?id=289&L=1 )
For further information please visit our website www.fotomuseum.ch
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Fotomuseum Winterthur
Grüzenstrasse 44+45
CH-8400 Winterthur (Zurich)
Switzerland
Phone: +41 52 234 10 60
Fax. +41 52 233 60 97
e-mail: fotomuseum@fotomuseum.ch
Opening hours: Tue – Sun 11am – 6pm, Wed 11am – 8pm, closed on Mondays
