In media-driven societies, reality apparently only comes into being through images: social events seem to take place only when they are present in the media. Younger generations in particular define themselves today to a large extent through (their) images: in imago ergo sum. Not only socially and politically significant events, but also private, trivial, or suppressed ones become public realities today when images of them spread through viral dynamics on social media networks: Thus, a marginal entertainment event can suddenly gain worldwide attention, and cell phone photos of protesters can alter the political future of entire countries. Those who create images are architects of reality. Making History focuses on the artistic reflection of public images. It presents positions that address the visualization of reality through media images, whether by devising forms of staging and docu-fictional narrative or by focusing on the visual margins of social events. The artists in the exhibition do not offer their own models of history; instead, their works reveal diverse perspectives on historical events that can be understood as expanded forms of historical representation as well as subjective visions of history, conveying independent conceptions of how history comes into being.

Making History is not strictly limited to the medium of photography but also incorporates videos and films. The exhibition presents a broad spectrum of artistic engagements with public images. The common thread is an examination of the conditions of possibility for media images—and thus historical images. Many artists take well-known media images of social events as their starting point, deliberately drawing on the imprint these have left on the collective memory. They quote such images, draw on the knowledge of events conveyed through photojournalism, or employ strategies of reenactment. Other artists address the distinctive characteristics of media images through dissection or recomposition and work to decelerate them. Unlike in press and reportage photography, they focus on existing and well-known depictions of social events. Making History thus places artistic reflections on the images that have shaped history—or will shape it in the future—at the center.