Kunsthafen im Rhenania 21.10.2022

The Body and Us

Body Politics

DiscourseTalk & Discussion
Lebohang Kganye
Lebohang Kganye

Controversial debates on gender politics, discourses on the (post)colonial legacy in cultural institutions and society, artistic and scientific contributions on gender fluidity and queerness: what these highly complex and diverse topics have in common is that they place the body at the centre of their debates. Artistic photography takes up these themes and the body is questioned, constructed and postulated in its political, sexual or cultural identity. In doing so, the medium of photography benefits from the power of an instrument of emancipation, which in the past not only depicted people or bodies, but also discriminated and categorized them.

Moderator: Delphine Bedel

Lectrurers: Lucia Halder (Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum) & Sophie Charlotte Opitz (Museum Vill Rot) & Lebohang Kganye (artist), Doris Gassert (Fotomuseum Winterthur), Delpine Bedel (artist and curator) & Antonio Cataldo (Fotogalleriet Oslo) & Miki Gebreleul (Fotogalleriet Oslo)

Introduction & Dialogue 1

Heide Häusler (Photoszene Köln), Lucia Halder (Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum) & Sophie Charlotte Opitz (Museum Vill Rot) & Lebohang Kganye (artist)

Dialogue 2

Doris Gassert (Fotomuseum Winterthur) & Delpine Bedel

Dialogue 3

Antonio Cataldo & Miki Gebreleul (Fotogalleriet Oslo) & Delphine Bedel

The discussion panels were recorded at the We Do/Are Photoprgaphy convention and can be viewed on the following pages:
 Simon Bessems

The Medium and Us

Photography in Progress

 Gregor Sailer

The World and Us

Photography and Climate Change

 Heidi Pfohl

The History and Us

Die Geste des Zeigens

We Do/Are Photography

In preparation for the Photoszene Festival in May 2023, the Internationale Photoszene Köln organized a 3-day event program of impulses and dialogues at Kunsthafen and a symposium at Stadtarchiv Köln on October 20-22, 2022.

In the sense of an open ThinkTank, scientists, curators and artists are invited to reflect on current discursive fields of photography in joint dialogues in four thematic blocks. The program is aimed at a general audience interested in photography and art, as well as at students and professionals, in order to discuss with us and the invited speakers the role of photography in the urgent debate on climate change, the discourses on body politics, but also the ever-changing medium of photography itself and its significance in the archives. Each day will culminate in an open get-together with drinks, music, and projections, for which the Kunsthafen will be transformed into a temporary photography venue.

The title We Do/Are Photography stands metaphorically for the network of relationships that interweaves the medium of photography, the world, and us, and addresses the fact that the relationship of humans to the environment is increasingly mediated through photographic images. We are part of the images we produce (We Do Photography), but also of the images that surround us and shape our relationship to the environment (We Are Photography).

Event Location

Kunsthafen im Rhenania
Bayenstraße 28
50678 Köln

Duration and Admission

21.10.2022

Opening hours

11 bis 16 Uhr


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