Dusseldorf photo+, the Biennale for Visual and Sonic Media, is organizing a program of over 50 exhibitions under the theme On Reality. The central exhibition at the biennale, at photo+ lab, is titled Ways of Seeing. Participating artists include Harun Farocki, Forensic Architecture, Geocinema and others.
The exhibition Ways of Seeing intends to investigate and expose the underlying connections between levers of power, control, social responsibility and mutually incompatible narratives of freedom, and how each of these is perceived and understood when observed through differing lenses. The show is inspired by John Berger's celebrated 1972 BBC series Ways of Seeing, which demonstrates how we interact with the images that we come into contact with reveals the metaphysical underpinnings of our individual worldviews, while the potential for mass reproducibility allows for the meaning of images to change in often unexpected ways.
As part of the biennale, a two-day symposium titled On Reality was organized by dusseldorf photo+ and K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. A group of artists, philosophers, researchers and media theorists were invited to discuss how images relate to our notion of reality, and to what extent does the medium inform our perception and understanding of it. Lecture-performances were delivered by Gabrielle Moser, Sim Chi Yin, Federico Campagna and others.
Both the central exhibition and the concept for the symposium were curated by Pola Sieverding and Asya Yaghmurian. The 3rd edition of dusseldorf photo+ is open through July 14, 2024. Find more information at the biennale site.