photography as Concept is an amazing photography book

Natacha Lesueur

photography as Concept (artists)

Vanessa Beecroft (1)
Maura Biava (1)
Peter Bömmels (D)
Martin Brandt /
Andreas Wolf /
Martin Schmidl Florian Haas (D)
Daniele Buetti (CH)
Patrick Van Caeckenbergh (B)
Claude Closky (F)
Hanne Darboven (D)
Cor Dera (NL)
Willie Doherty (IRL)
Felix Gonzalez-Torres ICUBA)
Alex Hartley (GB)
Helgard Haug /
Marcus Droß /
Daniel Wetzel (D)
Isabell Heimerdinger (D)
Jan Henderikse (NL)
Teresa Hubbard ((RL) /
Alexander Birchler ( CH)
Alfredo Jarr (CHILE)
lya Kabakov (GUS)
Joseph Kosuth (USA)
Elke Krystufek (A)
David Lameles (ARG)
Abigail Lane (GB)
Natacha Lesueur (F)
Sarah Lucas (GB)
Ken Lum (CDN)
Tracey Moffatt (AUS)
Brigitte Morhardt-Ehrlicher (D)
Jean-Luc Moulene (F)
Christopher Muller iGB / D)
Chuck Nanney (USA)
Mathis Neidhart (D)
Gabriel Orozco (MEX)
Merja Puustinen / Andy Best (FIN)
Zhijie Qiu (CHI)
Margarete Rebmann (D)
Susanne Reinhardt (D)
Gerwald Rockenschaub (A)
Ugo Rondinone (CH)
Sam Samore (USA)
Andreas Schmid (D)
Miron Schmückle (RO / DI
Uwe H. Seyl (D)
Bernard Voita (CHI)
Gilian Wearing (GB)
eorg Winter (D)
Guo Gu Zheng (CHI)
Hui Zhuang (CHI)

photography as Concept (Pages)

photography as Concept. Cantz
photography as Concept-Cantz

photography as Concept (Greeting)

The 150th birthday of photography in 1989 was one reason why the International Foto-Triennale was founded. The exhibition gave contemporary art photography a new forum of a kind that had not existed in Germany until then. New perspectives and points of view for international art photography were put on show. The Foto-Triennale – one of Esslingen’s most important cultural events – attracts international attention and praise. Previous con- cepts and key themes for the exhibition have identified trends for the development of contemporary art beyond the field of photo- graphy.

The first Foto-Triennale in 1989 provided a broad survey of “Art with Photography”. In 1992 the exhibitionfocused on “Invented Realities”, and showed that photography is an important interface in the transition to computer art. In 1995, works were shown as a documentation of everyday and individual ways of life, under the title “Close to Life”,

In the carly seventies the social sciences adopted an intellectual approach that was already familiar to philosophers. This view based on action-theory was like a change of paradigm. The proces- sual charakter of actions and cognition is to be found in recent SOCiological, and particulary psychologica, work, and s helpful in assessing positions within contemporary art. The paradigma of “contextual and processual action” only seems to sit uncomfortab- ly with a photographic record or work of art at first glance.

In pain- ting and sculpture the active artist’s relationship with hs work is still directly comprehensible, but in photcgraphy the moment when the picture is taken socms to be the cruc al impulse, fellowed by completion of the images merely as a technical process – in the most extreme case as a manipulative or corrective act when deve- loping. But contemporary photography has moved away from this moment of taking the picture in a radical fashion, fixation on the moment of exposure is rermoved and replaced at the centre of the artistic action by considerably more complex structures – the artist’s perception, the photographic object’s reflection and the observer’s cognition are included in the process as a whole This new conception places photographic action in a complex context that leads to new images and ways of looking at things.

“Fotografie als Handlung” – Photography as Action – is thus logi- cally the principal theme of the 1998 Foto-Triennale, the action- theory approach is central to the exhibition. The main programme shows work by 54 artists in five exhibition verues: the Villa Merkel. the Bahnwärterhaus, the Schwörhaus, the Stadtmuseum and the Galerie im Heppächer. Ten of the participants come from the immediate vicinity, and link the international programme with the fringe programme, which shows photographic art from the region in 30 other venues in the town. Some of the artists’ projects for public spaces break away from a commitment to exhib tion build- ings and include the town’s everyday life directly in their work, which demonstrates the theme of the exhibition in a particularly direct way.

Previous Foto-Triennales were curated by autsiders, but this year the director of the municipal galieries has taken on the task herself, vwhich establishes a link with the systematic exhibition programming in the Villa Merkel in recent years. The exciting main theme of the exhibition has aroused considera- ble expectations. I would like to thank all the artists for participating and welcome them and their work to Esslingen most cordially. I would also like to thank those who have lent work. My thanks go to everyone involved in organizing and realizing the 4th Internatio- nal Foto-Triennale, included the local council as well as the people and institutions that have made exhibitions available for the main and fringe programmes.

The Galerien der Stadt Esslingen team has done an enourmous amount of work. I would like to thank Renate Wiehager, Nina Bin- gel and their cooleagues very much for all their commitment. It would not have been possible to organize the 4th Foto-Triennale without support from the cultural foundations of the Länder and of Baden-Württemberg. I offer my thanks for this in the name of the citizens of Esslingen and memebrs of the public from near and far who are interested in art. The fact that both the national cultural foundation and Baden-Württemberg have funded this exhibition from the beginning is evidence of the high quality of the Foto-Trien- nales, and of their unique artistic importance.

I wish the 4th International Foto-Triennale every sucess and hope that all the visitors will have an exciting experience with contem- porary photographic art. I hope that guests from outside Esslingen will enjoy their stay and will find what a great variety of culture is available in the town.

Dr. Jürgen Zieger Mayor