Vortrag von Paul Willemsen am 23.11.2016: A Matter of Life and Death. Cemeteries, Heterotopias and Memento Mori: a Photographic Journey
Mi. 23.11.2016, 16:00 Uhr
LfKF, Dürener Str. 89, City Passagen, 1. Stock
Wir freuen uns sehr Sie zum Vortrag von Paul Willemsen ‚A Matter of Life and Death. Cemeteries, Heterotopias and Memento Mori: a Photographic Journey‘ einladen zu können.
A Matter of Life and Death
Cemeteries, Heterotopias and Memento Mori: a Photographic Journey
Cemeteries, Heterotopias and Memento Mori: a Photographic Journey
Philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault described heterotopias as
“real places – places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society – which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted.” Cemeteries serve as fine examples. These ‘enclosures’ will be discussed in relation to how nowadays society and social practices interfere with these sites. The starting point is a comparison of two pictures of a same graveyard and small town (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) respectively shot by the documentary photographers Walker Evans and Bernd & Hilla Becher. From there a photographic journey through a changing world is undertaken, focusing on incongruities prompted by the interaction between life and death, tradition and modernity in different cultures and societies.
“real places – places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society – which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted.” Cemeteries serve as fine examples. These ‘enclosures’ will be discussed in relation to how nowadays society and social practices interfere with these sites. The starting point is a comparison of two pictures of a same graveyard and small town (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) respectively shot by the documentary photographers Walker Evans and Bernd & Hilla Becher. From there a photographic journey through a changing world is undertaken, focusing on incongruities prompted by the interaction between life and death, tradition and modernity in different cultures and societies.
Paul Willemsen is a Belgian critic and curator. He has a background in film studies and he specialises in lens-based media. From 1996 to 2012 has was director Argos, a centre for art and media in Brussels.
Mittwoch, 23.11.2016, 16:00 Uhr
Labor für Kunst und Forschung
Dürener Str. 89
City Passagen, 1. Stock
50931 Köln
Labor für Kunst und Forschung
Dürener Str. 89
City Passagen, 1. Stock
50931 Köln
info-LfKF@uni-koeln.de
www.laborfuerkunstundforschung.de
www.laborfuerkunstundforschung.de