Bodies that glitch: spring programme

This year our exhibition programme looks at new forms of photographic representation and intimacy by celebrating “bodies that glitch” in an age of hyper-visibility. The Covid-19 pandemic has alerted us to the relationship between state power, digital exposure and our bodies, demanding us to be constantly online and virtually exposed. Alarmingly, most of the new attention-oriented technologies are based on seductive forms of marketing and surveillance that operate subtly. For example, when the personal data taken from users enables tech companies to create profiles to target and potentially manipulate or control them. Is it possible to be intimate and claim visibility beyond the standardized forms created by digital technologies? What new forms of sensuality and body images circulating in the virtual space are needed? What desires are left unspoken?

The exhibition programme is accompanied by a series of talks, performances and screenings, focusing on the topic of “institutional hospitality” with an intersectional approach. It addresses questions such as fair payment, the (non)presence of children, care work, diversity, and power imbalances in institutional structures, and points towards the future for a critical and ethical redesign. Curated by Jana Johanna Haeckel.

Exhibitions, February 5–April 16
Karla Hiraldo Voleau: Another Love Story
Karla Hiraldo Voleau’s solo exhibition proposes a reflection on the photographic medium and its place as a silent witness of our love relationships in the digital present. Based on a devastating personal story, the artist developed a series of photographs and texts that reconstruct and replicate the last months of her relationship with a man before she found out he was leading a double-life. Another Love Story mirrors the instrumentalisation of love and its superficialness in the age of the digital, exposing and simultaneously undermining their enthralling mechanisms.

Nicolas Polli: When Strawberries Will Grow On Trees, I Will Kiss U
Nicolas Polli’s solo exhibition explores the topics of loneliness, doubts, desire and intimacy from a humorous and at the same time fragile perspective. His photographs serve as a visual diary, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, body, and the photographic image. In doing so, they subvert traditional notions of masculinity and present an honest portrait of vulnerability, captured and seen through the eyes of those who experience it.

Event, April 8, 4–7pm
Prendre la parole. Re-imagining institutional power structures
In this round-table discussion, the artists Karla Hiraldo Voleau, Jenny Rova and Rosa Brux introduce their work and argue that a paradigm shift is needed within the art world to take account of the needs of artists and care workers. Their practices give rise to new scenes—platforms for visibility and actions—that open the way for new forms of interaction and thinking about the relationships between art and society.

Exhibition, May 5–June 18
Salvatore Vitale: Decompressed Prism
As part of this year’s Bieler Fototage /Journées photographiques de Bienne Photoforum invites the artist Salvatore Vitale. His digital installation Decompressed Prism explores the different uses of control technologies in Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Italy and questions the notion of the body evolving between digitisation and reality. Drawing on contemporary philosophical and sociological texts, the artist imagines a different reality in which the visitor is invited to question the possibility of counter-narratives.