Rebecca Racine Ramershoven
STUDIO VISIT
Identität, Repräsentation und Widerstand
Rebecca Racine Ramershoven (1987) lives and works in Cologne and Thessaloniki. She completed both her Bachelor's and Master's degree at the Folkwang University of the Arts and graduated in 2024. Since 2014, her photographic works have been shown in national and international solo and group exhibitions. As a visual artist, Ramershoven uses the media of photography, moving image and objects to negotiate questions of race-related representation and socio-cultural issues and possibilities. The engagement and integration of political and historical contexts play an immense role in her conceptual approaches. In 2022 she received the “Contemporary German Photography” scholarship from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation.
Her work is represented in collections including Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen, Museum Folkwang, Essen. In 2025, she will take up a residency at the KunstSalon in Villa Aurora, Los Angeles.
“Hello, I'm Rebecca Racine Ramershoven, 37 years old, I live in Cologne and work as a visual artist. My focus is on photography, but in recent years moving images, i.e. video, and objects have also increasingly found their way into my work. I am interested in how an experience is created in a space and how I can give my work space there so that it can unfold.
The still image has a special power for me. It not only offers its own aesthetic language, but also the opportunity to think about identification in a new way. In my work, I deal intensively with the representation of black bodies - especially in their relationship to white spaces. I am interested in the question: What possibilities does a portrait offer? What does the process of portraiture look like? And how can this act be both loving and political? I want to find out how a portrait can express resistance - and whether this becomes visible to viewers, whether black or white.”
“A central work of my final project Black is Blue is Gold is the portrait series Flow, in which I deal with the representation of black bodies. From the very beginning, it was important to me to consciously shape the moment of portraiture - together with the people I was photographing. This means that we have an intensive exchange beforehand, disclose my intentions and questions and create a space for participation. The people portrayed can have a say in the locations and backgrounds in which the photos are taken. In addition, I am not the only one who decides which images are to be used. This process enables close collaboration based on transparency and mutual trust.”
“My work can currently be seen in the Photography Masters exhibition at the Folkwang Museum in Essen. Nineteen of the 24 portraits from Flow are being shown there, together with the video work Frequencies and the two object works Folding Chairs One and Two. The exhibition runs until April 27. In addition to this presentation, I am particularly looking forward to my upcoming residency at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. I'll be working on a new project there for three months in the summer - an exciting and inspiring challenge that I'm really looking forward to.”
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Studio Visits
With its museums, galleries and art spaces, Cologne offers a broad field of photography. Naturally, there is also a correspondingly large and diverse artist scene here that works and experiments with the medium. In our new section Studio Visits, we would like to introduce you to artistic positions and take you to the production and thinking spaces of art. Have fun!
