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 Medium and Us
Photography in Progress
The World and Us
Photography and Climate Change
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 RhenaniaBayenstraße 28
50678 Köln
Duration and Admission
21.10.2022Opening hours
11 bis 16 Uhr