Industria Vitalis
Industry has become a kind of goddes in our world. After the so called industrial revolution in the early 19th century the world has faced a rapid change of its production and culture since then. Production has changed to robotics today and control has taken over by computers.
Industry belongs to our modern world and has always been a theme in photography. In Germany we like to think of postwar photography by Albert Renger-Patzsch, or Peter Keetmann, or Heinrich Heidersberger. The Bechers, Bernd and Hilla turned industrial photography into anonymous sculptures and defined a new style of documentary photography with their Dusseldorf School of Photography.
In the images of Claudia Fährenkemper and Jamey Stillings industry and technology interfere with our landscape and dismantle the opposition between nature and culture of technology. Many images of industries are empty spaces, like those of Ferit Kuyas and Luca Zanier. Wether in Kuyas’ Black and White images or in Zanier’s striking color compositions the spaces become glorified, powerful, majestic places that take us away into a dreamland. Most industries create structures and architectures that stretch and bend through our landscapes and urban cities, like in the works by Martin Schaepers, Matthias Koch and Thomas Kellner. Lucia Ganieva reminds us of the people and of a culture in designs, where she combines workers with factories and wallpaperdesigns.
The neverending invention of new technologies will always lead into new structures, infrastructures, Meta- and Nano-structures that invite us to discover the world anew.
industria vitalis
April 23 - May 23, 2016
Industrial Museum of China, ShenYang, Tiexi, Peoples Republic of China
The 2nd International Industrial Photography Festival, Shenyang, Tiexi, Peoples Republic of China
Participants: Claudia Fährenkemper, Lucia Ganieva, Thomas Kellner, Matthias Koch, Ferit Kuyas, Martin Schaepers, Jamey Stillings, Luca Zanier
Curator: Thomas Kellner
“Kellner’s work […] destabilizing and transforming the conventional representation […], proposing them as provisional and mutable.” Coleman, A.D., Ozymandias, Coppock, Christopher, 2003, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales, page 2
Participating photographers
catalog
International Industrial Photography Festival, 2016. Thomas Kellner. In: Industry. Culture Value Innovation. Shenyang: China Photographic Publishing House, p. 45, 81 >>>
Thank you to the photographers believing in an exciting tour to China, thank you to the curators and organizers from Shenyang for hosting such a great exhibition and festival, thank you to the International team Mr. Zhang Guotian and Liu Xiaoxia and the many interpreters guiding us through the activities, thank you to the installation team for a perfect job and a very big thank you to the Swiss Arts Council prohelvetia for supporting the Swiss artists on their participation in China.
Installations
Festival opening
Press
TV
Phoenix Chinese Channel >>>
Province Channel of Liaoning >>>
Internet
Chinese press on the web about the 2nd International Industrial Photography Festival in ShenYang
Province Channel of Liaoning online report
with the kind support by Swiss Arts Council prohelvetia
