RAY 2024
Diego Moreno, Two October Moons II. Aus der Serie Malign Influences, 2021 @ Diego Moreno. All Rights Reserved 2021
Jürgen Klauke, Dauerläufer, 1972/1973 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Courtesy Galerie Anita Beckers und Jürgen Klauke
Mimi Plumb, Highway 4, aus der Serie The White Sky, 1975 © Mimi Plumb
Echoes
03.05.–01.09.2024
How do images contribute to our understanding of our identity, our memories, our emotions, and our ability to grasp and process current social, societal, and political challenges? RAY Echoes does not offer answers to these questions, but—much like a laboratory—provides many perspectives and opportunities for individual exploration. The artists of the RAY 2024 Photography Triennial of Photography use photography and photography-related media to explore and reflect on the challenges and tensions of self-perception and human interaction. Their works bridge the past, present, and future, as well as the spectrum from the intimate and personal to the collective. By capturing these diverse moments and phenomena, they create an echo that draws the public’s attention to their themes. Much like a sonic experience, they generate a resonance that is perceived as an independent event beyond what is represented and is perceived as an event in its own right. On this basis, RAY Echoes focuses on three key themes: Identity, Memory, and Emotion.
Echoes Identity – Identity and photography: a relationship of love and hate, of resemblance and oppression, a relationship that oscillates between classification and self-empowerment. Over time, photographs have enabled those in power to organize categorize, monitor, and persecute people on arbitrary grounds. But the artists of RAY Echoes also demonstrate that identity cannot be reduced to a single image.
Echoes Memory – The role of photography as a vehicle for memory is as complex as it is multifaceted. The medium’s claim to truth is just as questionable as that of memory itself. The exhibition explores how photographic images—including those created generated with AI—can be used to (re)create and/or manipulate missing or blurred memories. Photo-based works can also construct memories of events: that never actually took place but come to be experienced as real.
Echoes Emotion – Finally, the exhibition also examines the emotional responses that photographic and media-related images can evoke. Among other things, it explores how we experience and react to the representation of certain situations and events. Such responses vary widely according to viewers’ emotional states and sociocultural backgrounds, challenging the assumption that photography is a universal language.
Curatorial Team
Anne-Marie Beckmann (Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Eschborn), Alexandra Lechner (independent curator), Celina Lunsford (Fotografie Forum Frankfurt), Matthias Wagner K (Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt)
Artists
Mónica Alcázar-Duarte (*1977 MX), Jana Bissdorf (*1987 DE), Sophie Calle (*1953 FR), Maisie Cousins (*1992 GB), Omar Victor Diop (*1980 SN) and Lee Shulman (*1973 GB), Joy Gregory (*1959 GB), Jesper Just (*1974 DK), Lebohang Kganye (*1990 ZA), Jürgen Klauke (*1943 DE), Anton Kusters (*1974 BE), Dinu Li (*1965 HK), Jyoti Mistry (*1970 ZA), Diego Moreno (*1992 MX), Mimi Plumb (*1953 US), Johanna Schlegel (*1986 DE) and Inuuteq Storch (*1989 GL)
Exhibition Venues
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Museum Angewandte Kunst
Partner Exhibition and Event Venues
Historisches Museum Frankfurt, KfW Stiftung, Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt, Kunststiftung DZ BANK, Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, Marta Hoepffner-Gesellschaft für Fotografie e.V. Guest at the Gallery Hanna Bekker vom Rath, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst and Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden
Festival
Following the official opening of the RAY Triennial of Photography 2024, the festival ran for three days from May 3 to 5. International artists, curators, and experts from interdisciplinary fields were invited to explore and discuss the theme Echoes through lectures and talks.
Support
RAY Echoes was made possible by: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Kulturamt Stadt Frankfurt am Main, Museumsufer Frankfurt
Supported by: Crespo Foundation, Heinz und Gisela Friederichs Stiftung, Rudolf-August Oetker-Stiftung, Mann Stiftung
Media Archive
Opening
Photos: Lea Kulens, Robert Schittko
Festival
Photos: Lea Kulens, Robert Schittko, Sabine Schirdewahn
Master Class
Photos: Tatiana Vdovenko
Lectures and Artists Talks
Mira Anneli Naß, *Beyond Evidence: Image Forensics and the Search for Clues Between Individual and Collective Memory* (lecture)
Johanna Schlegel and Maisie Cousins in conversation with curator Anne-Marie Beckmann
Anton Kusters with Ruben Samama on their work on The Blue Skies Project
Joy Gregory on her work and her publication *Black Women Photographers of the 80s and 90s in Britain*. Introduction by curator Celina Lunsford
Hans-Michael Koetzle in conversation with Celina Lunsford und Sabine Seitz - 40 years Fotografie Forum Frankfurt
Sophie-Charlotte Opitz on Individual and Collective Memory Dynamics
Mónica Alcazár-Duarte, Dinu Li, and Inuuteq Storch on their work; a conversation with curator Celina Lunsford
Sophie-Charlotte Opitz moderates a discussion with the curatorial team Anne-Marie Beckmann, Celina Lunsford, and Alexandra Lechner
A Conversation with Jesper Just and curator Alexandra Lechner
A Conversation with Jyoti Mistry and curator Celina Lunsford
Omar Victor Diop and Lee Shulman discuss their “The Anonymous Project”
Cornelia Siebert in conversation with Diego Moreno (Translation: Jacqueline Jakobi)