RAY Plus

RAY Plus presents further independent photography exhibitions in Frankfurt/Rhine-Main. Some Highlights:

Denis Dailleux & Satijn Panyigay: Galerie Peter Sillem, Teboho Edkins, Pierre Crocquet, Sam Lahu: Kai Middendorff Galerie, Andrea Grützner: Galerie Schierke Seinecke, Per Schorn: Galerie Greulich, Petra Wunderlich: Bernhard Knaus Fine Art, Nicole Ahland: Evangelische Akademie Frankfurt, Maša Stanić: Galerie Perpétuel, Witold Riedel: Heussenstamm-Stiftung.

Frankfurt

Alte Schmelze, on the site of the Milchsackfabrik

Identities
25.04.–05.05.
Gutleutstraße 294, 60327 Frankfurt am Main
milchsackfabrik.de

In the former industrial hall, the "Alte Schmelze", on the site of the Milchsackfabrik in Frankfurt's Gutleutviertel, a new cultural venue was temporarily created in summer 2022 with the project "Art in the Milchsackfabrik - Exhibitions in the Alte Schmelze", which regularly showed artistic positions and temporary exhibitions. The project was continued in 2023 and will continue in 2024. The first exhibition of the year will open in spring, on April 25, 2024. IDENTITIES shows three artistic positions by three female photographers: Teona Gogichaishvili, Lara Micheli and Ketevan Gvinepadze.

The End Has No End.
20.06.-07.07.
Gutleutstraße 294, 60327 Frankfurt am Main
milchsackfabrik.de

The title of the group exhibition with works by Verdiana Albano, James Banks and Martin Wenzel is inspired by a song by the US band The Strokes and addresses the cyclical nature of life, in which endings and new beginnings merge into one another.

This is reflected in the cycle of birth, life and death as well as the transitions between different phases of life such as childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Philosophically, the title addresses the idea of infinity and the eternal cycle of existence. Emotionally, it refers to the fact that experiences, memories and feelings leave a lasting legacy, even if external circumstances change. The past shapes our identity and influences our future behavior. In relationships, the effects and memories of a terminated relationship remain emotionally relevant, even when it is long gone.

Basement at Atelierfrankfurt

re:scape
25.04.–05.05.
Kuratiert von Laura Brichta und Esra Klein
Schwedlerstraße 1–5, 60314 Frankfurt am Main
rescape-ausstellung.tumblr.com

Terms such as Anthropocene or Capitalocene shape our perception and actions and are indicative of the current age. However, as much as we influence this planet, our being is also strongly influenced by it.
re:scape shows nine photographic-artistic approaches to the interactions between humans and the environment. As if through multiple lenses of the camera, the environment is received, distorted and reutilized and transformed into the world around us through our own creative work. Photography serves not only to capture, but also to create realities. This results in the creation and localization of one's own environment in the midst of a society marked by crisis, as a place of retreat and protection. By reflecting on physical and natural processes, the artists create new environments, which in turn inspire a more conscious engagement with the world around us.

Evangelische Akademie Frankfurt

Nicole Ahland, Artist of the year
until the end of the year
Römerberg 9, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
evangelische-akademie.de

Light plays one of the main roles in the pictures of photo artist Nicole Ahland. Her pictures focus on the incidence of light in space - mostly architectural, but sometimes also natural. The spaces photographed by Ahland are stages for light and stagings of epiphany. People also appear in them.

The photo artist is the first "Artist of the Year" in a new cooperation between the Frankfurt Heussenstamm Foundation and the Evangelical Academy Frankfurt. Her pictures will be present in the institution for a year in various ways and open up new, vivid spaces for viewers. The artist has developed installative, i.e. site-specific works for the architecturally sophisticated building, which is difficult to use as an exhibition space.

Exhibition of the Frauenreferat at the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt

Imagine
Jana Hartmann, Shir Newman, Jeanette Petri
Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, 2. OG
4.06.–13.06.
Braubachstrasse 30-32, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
frauenreferat.frankfurt.de

The three contemporary photographers Jana Hartmann, Shir Newman and Jeanette Petri deal in different ways with current topics such as environmental destruction and digital parallel worlds, war and violence as well as identities and gender roles. Under the title Imagine, they describe the search for hope, connections and truthfulness and create images that encourage us to take a more differentiated look at our world.

The exhibition is part of the "Dialogues between Word and Image" series, with which the municipal women's department has been creating a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration between Frankfurt's female artists since 2003.

Gallery Anita Beckers

Brave New World
16.05.–17.08.2024
Braubachstrasse 9, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
galerie-beckers.com

The group exhibition Brave New World is inspired by the visionary work of Aldous Huxley. Works by around 20 artists invite visitors to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the advancing technology of our time.

Like Huxley's novel, these works explore the interface between humanity and technology, between utopia and dystopia. In a world in which the boundaries between reality and virtuality, between nature and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly blurred, we are faced with the question of how we can preserve our identity and shape our existence in a meaningful way.

GALLERY BERNHARD KNAUS FINE ART

Petra Wunderlich
Solo exhibition with new works by the artist
04.05.–29.06.2024
Niddastraße 84, 60329 Frankfurt am Main
bernhardknaus.com

In the solo exhibition La Plaiv, Petra Wunderlich uses a refined and didactic approach to create stoic black and white images that carefully examine the architectural facades of the picturesque and romantic villages of the eponymous region in Switzerland. Wunderlich studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and belonged to the student generation of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. Today, she maintains the Düsseldorf School's tradition of strict documentation through tightly cropped photographs that lend the subject of the work a distanced, discreet look. Her matter-of-fact approach and the serialization of the photographs take up sober themes in terms of style and content and reinforce the architectural geometries that characterize this Swiss landscape - as well as the mysterious absence of its inhabitants.

Gallery Greulich in MARIA Shop

Per Schorn
Nachts sind alle Katzen grau
04.05–26.05.
Fahrgasse 22, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
galerie-greulich.de

Winterwunderland, created in the snowy winter of 2021 in the Taunus region, alludes directly to the isolation during the coronavirus pandemic, as Schorn says: "Many things that were normal for us no longer seemed imaginable. I missed going to concerts or bars and meeting my friends. So I developed the concept of my own club just for myself and far away from everything: the winter wonderland. It had already been snowing for a few days when I had the idea of turning a quiet night in the forest into a club, at least for a moment. I missed the colorful lights, the music, the life." It is an unusual contrast: the lights of the clubs, parties and concerts illuminate the quiet winter forest. The light changes everything. These pictures are not only an expression of the longing for normality, but more than that, proof of the changeability of places and situations through the light of photography. Photography can change the world, as this atmospheric series of forest pictures shows.

Gallery Perpétuel

Maša Stanić
I want to scream so much but my vocal cords are chronically inflammated
25.04.–25.05.
Oppenheimer Str. 39, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
perpetuel.net

Maša Stanić (*1994) is a Serbian-Austrian photographer and artist. Her work is described as a hybrid of portrait, editorial and reportage photography. At the center of her intimate and at the same time raw visual language is the beauty in the ugly, which Stanić develops according to the double principle of spontaneous impulsiveness and serendipity: Recognizing what is there - and then working with it.

Gallery–Peter–Sillem

Denis Dailleux
20.04.–01.06.
Dreieichstraße 2, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
galerie-peter-sillem.com

„Imbued with his distinctive delicacy, Denis Dailleux’s photographic work appears calm on the surface, yet is incredibly demanding, run through by an undercurrent of constant self-doubt and propelled by the essential personal bond he develops with those (and that which) he frames with his camera.“ Christian Caujolle, Founder of Agence VU

Denis Dailleux was born in 1958 in Angers, France. He has published a series of photography books, portraying Egypt, Cairo, his impressions of the revolution, and Ghana.
Dailleux has been awarded several international prizes, including the Monographies Award in 1997, the World Press Photo Award in the portraits category in 2000, the Hasselblad of the town Vevey Award in Switzerland in 2000, the Fujifilm Award of Festival Terre d'Images to Biarritz in 2001, and the World Press Photo Award 2014 in the staged portraits category (2nd). He is a member of Agence VU and currently lives in Paris.

Satijn Panyigay
22.06.–24.08.
Dreieichstraße 2, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
galerie-peter-sillem.com

Satijn Panyigay (b. 1988 in Nijmegen, Netherlands) studied photography at the Utrecht School of Art, where she continues to live and work. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in the Netherlands, including Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam); Fotomuseum Den Haag; Museum Tot Zover (Amsterdam); Villa Mondriaan (Winterswijk). Her works are in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museum Tot Zover, Museum Van Bommel Van Dam and Museum W., among others, as well as in numerous private collections.

Heussenstamm-Stiftung

Witold Riedel
Ursprünge
Fotografie, Mixed Media
29.5.-22.6.2024
Braubachstraße 34, 60311 Frankfurt
heussenstamm.de

Witold Riedel's works revolve around questions of the creation of images, including photographic images. In the "Pandemic Zoom Self Portraits" series, for example, the artist explores the possibilities of AI and a possible arc of tension with identity or generates photograms by depositing soot particles on the photographic paper.

Kai Middendorff Gallery

Teboho Edkins, Pierre Crocquet, Sam Lahu
Place of deep shadows
07.06.–13.07
Niddastraße 84 Halle, 60329 Frankfurt am Main
kaimiddendorff.com

For the Ray Triennale, Kai Middendorff is presenting the latest film by multi-award-winning South African filmmaker Teboho Edkins in cinema format and combining it with a large photo exhibition. The photographs were taken during filming in the village of Karatara in South Africa and were taken by his cameraman Samuel Lahu. The magnificent original black and white photographs by Pierre Crocquet, which Teboho Edkins explores in his film, can also be seen. Pierre Crocquet (1971 - 2013), who died young, photographed the predominantly poor, white inhabitants of this settlement in a coastal forest in South Africa between 2006 and 2008 (Enter Exit, Cantz Verlag 2008). Edkins' grandparents lived very close to this village. In the film, Edkins visits the people Crocquet portrayed a good 17 years ago. The moving scenes and haunting conversations revolve around the supernatural in this place and the spirits that live here and regularly show themselves to the residents ...

Mars Frankfurt

Sylvain Couzinet Jacques und Stefan Steins
We will all die soon
Beginning to mid-September
Ginnheimer Landstraße 35, 60487 Frankfurt am Main
instagram.com/marsfrankfurt

We will die soon smeared in black paint on a white construction fence surrounding an undefined piece of land on which, despite this general and individual realization, something is being created that is to be protected - from prying eyes, but also from intruders, as the taut barbed wire reveals.

In his photographs, Stefan Steins documents a (Western) society that is in a state of disintegration and yet is constantly working on its future. Everywhere people are building, consuming, consuming and even loving as if there were no tomorrow.

The photographs indicate that something is changing that could soon no longer be there. They thus expose nothing less than the absurdity of human existence. Steins shows the aberrations of a capitalism that is out of control, whose construction projects have come to a standstill, whose urge for individuality has produced uniforms and conformity above all else. Steering wheels studded with rhinestones only know the way to the abyss.

Schierke Seinecke

Andrea Grützner
Haus im Taumel
23.05–24.08.
Niddastr. 63, 60329 Frankfurt am Main
schierkeseinecke.com

The Erbgericht in eastern Germany has been a guesthouse for more than a hundred years. The house is a projection screen for generations of memories and emotions. Andrea Grützner (*1984) uses photography to create a tension between abstraction and the actual existence of place. The installed filtered flashlights produce a moment of de-familiarization in the house itself, not clearly visible to the eye. In the fragmented photographic spaces the viewer cannot be sure whether she or he perceives objects or glowing shadows. As an imperfect representation on trace of a real object, shadows are closely related to photography: both show things which are or have been there as a distorted version of reality. Based on the photographs, the viewer reconstructs the place in a different manner; a process similar to the way we recall spaces in our memory. The real house echoes in the pictures, in which any sense of time and space becomes lost.

Kulturzentrum Switchboard

Jo Albert
konsumschamanen
10.05.–July
Alte Gasse 36, 60313 Frankfurt am Main
frankfurt-aidshilfe.de/de/switchboard

Surreal, hooded figures form the staff of Jo Albert's Consumer Shamans series of works. Motifs that deal with serious themes such as protection and concealment, consumption and environmental destruction, without losing sight of the irony.

Bad Homburg

Kulturzentrum Englische Kirche

Lena Bils
I want to believe
27.04–12.05
Kulturzentrum Englische Kirche, Ferdinandstr. 16, 61348 Bad Homburg

The work I want to believe by Lena Bils moves between the film world of the Andalusian desert of Tabernas, a location for western films for decades, and the religious world of the Montserrat monastery near Barcelona, a place of Marian apparitions and inexplicable phenomena. The stories of both places become real because people believe in them. The series uses symbolism and image design to create new associations with supernatural phenomena and plays between reality and fiction.

Darmstadt

Literaturhaus Darmstadt

»INT/EXT« (Interior/ Exterior)
23.04.–30.09.2024
Literaturhaus, Schauraum
Kasinostraße 3, 64293 Darmstadt
literaturhaus-darmstadt.de

Boris Suyderhoud is a documentary photographer who explores the intricate relationships between people and the objects that surround them every day. His work explores the meaning of cherished possessions, discarded items and often overlooked everyday objects.

In his latest project »INT/EXT« (Interior/Exterior), Suyderhoud explores the cosmos of objects that are no longer used and have now been thrown away. To this end, he goes on nightly forays through the streets of Amsterdam, when residents place their bulky waste next to the underground garbage cans so that it can be collected the next morning. He collects this garbage in every district he visits and uses it to create fascinating public installations. With this process, he creates scenes that convey a sense of comfort, while at the same time giving the objects back their value before they disappear into the ever-growing landfill. »INT/EXT« was first presented in 2022 at the Openlucht Atelier Amsterdam and was discussed in the Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool with an extensive interview.

Eschborn

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation

Chris Killip. A Retrospective
22.02.–19.05.2024
The Cube
Mergenthalerallee 61, 65760 Eschborn
deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation is honouring the work of influential British photographer Chris Killip (1946-2020) with a comprehensive retrospective. Killip poignantly documented the lives of people in the north of England, who were particularly affected by the economic shifts of the 1970s and 1980s. His portraits, landscapes and architectural photographs show both the consequences and challenges of deindustrialisation and those brought on by the political changes in the wake of Margaret Thatcher’s accession to power in 1979. Killip captured the harsh everyday lives of workers and their families in unsparing yet empathetic black and white images. They bear witness to the personal relationships he established with his protagonists over long periods. To this day, his social documentary approach continues to exert a formative influence on the visual language of subsequent generations of photographers.

Hofheim

Stadtmuseum Hofheim

A DAY OFF – An Exhibition of the F.C. Gundlach Foundation
12.07.–08.09.2024
Burgstraße 11, 65719 Hofheim am Taunus
museum.de/museen/stadtmuseum-hofheim-am-taunus

Leisure activities are a topic that constantly occupies us all. Just do nothing? Impossible! Our lives have become more hectic and intense, and not just since the coronavirus pandemic. We are confronted with ever more exciting, adventurous and exotic leisure activities everywhere. The pressure to keep up and supposedly have to is enormous. Leisure time has gone from being a time to relax after work to a clocked through mass phenomenon. At peak times after work, at weekends and on public holidays, beaches, swimming pools, sports studios, cinemas and parks are bursting at the seams. Everyone is striving for maximum relaxation, self-optimization and the greatest possible distance from everyday life.

A DAY OFF in the Stadtmuseum Hofheim visualizes the manifestations of our leisure culture with a wink: people feast, sizzle, smoke, sweat and work out as much as they can. Some scenes are no longer imaginable today. Others are similar: then, as now, people soaked up the sun, watched the latest film in the cinema, danced or played bingo together. Through the lens of some of the world’s most renowned photographers, we gain an insight into how our leisure behavior has changed over the past hundred years.

Mainz

Institut français Mainz

fever dream
05.04.–16.05
Schillerstraße 11, 55116 Mainz
institutfrancais.de

New Orleans has always been a city full of extremes. At least since the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, people there have lived in a state of constant threat. The realistic expectation of the next disaster is omnipresent. In addition to the storm season during the summer months, rising sea levels are constantly sinking chunks of land into the Gulf of Mexico not far from New Orleans. A hotel that collapsed during construction in the heart of downtown, very high crime rates, or countless videos on social media of road damage and accidents are just a few examples of a seemingly cursed, decrepit, and in many ways defective environment.

Maybe that‘s why those who can’t fit into the American system anywhere else and have nothing to lose find a home here. Queer travelers who have been through a lot in their young lives. Katrina created gaps that provided easily accessible shelter. Fueled by the tolerant and warm-hearted spirit of the local urban population, a collective of unique people was able to flourish. A rebellious and unruly subculture for which artistic expression is vital to survival. But the city is like the swamp that surrounds it: Once in it, it‘s hard to get out of it again. The migratory birds have become migrants. They have found their self-chosen community and family here. A nest, at least for the moment. In this place with an uncertain future, all the energy flows into the here and now.
The long-term photo essay shows the clinking and flickering of this magical world on a constant tipping point. It seeks closeness to the wayward protagonists, accompanying them as they constantly alternate between the extremes of tragedy and empowered celebration.

Restitution… et après?
23.05–06.06.
Schillerstraße 11, 55116 Mainz
newafro.net

"African cultural heritage needs to be restituted!" This is the argument shared by many African cultural and political actors. However, while such arguments have been defended and heard since the times of independence, it's only in recent years that many actors in the art scenes from here and elsewhere have become aware of the complexity of the topic restitution.

​What should be restituted? How should it be restituted? Can there be complete restitution? What might restitution, both material and non-material, look like 40-years-from-now?

​Through this exhibition, Cheria Essieke (from New Afro), the curator, aims to initiate a conversation about the future of the restitution of African cultural heritage by providing a platform for African creatives to express themselves through their artwork.

Offenbach

Ping Pong, ENSP Arles x HfG Offenbach

30.04.–05.05.
Hafenpl. 1-3, 63067 Offenbach
magmamaria.com

Visual languages and concepts from the art academies of Arles and Offenbach meet in an ocular echo. As part of RAY PLUS, the off-festival of the RAY Photography Triennial 2024, seven students of each school playfully enter into a photographic dialogue in a joint exhibition. Luring us into their individual artistic dimensions, the works may appear to differ in form and matter at first, but unite in their personal approaches framing universal themes as environment, identity and emotion within the photographic medium.

With students from Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach and École nationale supérieure de la photographie, Arles.

Curated by Esra Klein in collaboration with Prof. Tadashi Ono and Prof. Martin Liebscher.

Rüsselsheim

SCHLEUSE der Opelvillen

Tatiana Vdovenko
egg in stone
24.04.-16.06.2024
Ludwig-Dörfler-Allee 9, 65428 Rüsselsheim
opelvillen.de/de/schleuse/

Interpersonal relationships have a lasting impact on our character, on the way we deal with our social environment and on our view of the world. Although the highs and lows are intertwined, some moments are more memorable than others. From overstepping boundaries, break-ups, journeys and moving on – Tatiana Vdovenko's comprehensive installation at SCHLEUSE shows excerpts from series created over the last three years. In the analogue photographs, the gaze glides along the passing landscape, evokes memories of distant cities and comes to better understanding of the immediate surroundings. Between high speed and moments of taking a deep breath, Vdovenko plays with the rollercoaster ride of life.

Wiesbaden

Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs e. K.

Rui Camilo
Shot at Goal
06.07.–19.07
Steubenstraße 17, 65189 Wiesbaden
klauskleinschmidt.de

The photography that Rui Camilo has compiled for this exhibition and his new photo book Common Ground is unified by a strong, recurring motif in every picture: football goals, taken over many years. The condition and location of the goals reveal a lot about their geographical and social context. They are goals that Rui Camilo encountered by chance on his travels. This illustrates once again that you don't have to look for these more or less informal soccer pitches, but can find them all over the world. Common foundations and rules are of enormous importance for a society in order to enable harmonious coexistence, a common ground. This is the only way we can grow and thrive as a society! And a soccer pitch and the rules of soccer, which are recognized by all cultures, can stand as a symbol for this common ground.