Time Present

This exhibition presents a panorama of photographic art made between 1970 and 2010 from the Deutsche Bank Collection, which ranks as one of the most important collections of contemporary art on paper in the world. By showcasing a rich diversity of photographic art in which snippets of “time” are captured and recorded, this exhibition hopes to shine a light on the power of the photograph as a medium of artistic expression.

Against a backdrop of cultural and social diversification, one of the highlights of this show is the extent to which photography has been pursued within contemporary art as a common language. The show features some 40 artists (and a total of approximately 60 works) who are active within their respective cultural and social milieus. They include such internationally known German artists as Bernd & Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky and Gerhard Richter; emerging Asian artists such as Cao Fei, Yeondoo Jung and Liu Zhen; Japanese artists such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tokihiro Sato and Miwa Yanagi; and others from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Through their works, the show hopes to cast a spotlight on contemporary photographic expression as it exists within the ever accelerating wave of globalization.

Time Present takes a thematic approach by introducing various different aspects of photography and of time itself in four sections: “Time Exposed” brings together positions that question the boundaries between the static and moving image, between time as it is perceived objectively and subjectively. The section “Today is the Past” explores photography as a medium that makes personal and collective history legible, while “A Moment of Intense Concentration” investigates the fraught relationship between documentation and dramatic presentation—the unique moment that is capable of telling an entire story. The exhibition concludes with the section “My Future Is Not a Dream,” in which urgent social issues form the point of departure for articulating fears of the future, as well as hope and utopian vision.

More information at db.com/art and db-artmag.com.

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