Premiere of the new exhibition in the series "with/against the flow. Contemporary Photographic Interventions": #3 Sebastian Stumpf #4 Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs

Stuttgart/Berlin, 5.12.2019 - On 07.12.2019, the opening of a dual exhibition of works by Sebastian Stumpf and Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs will continue the exhibition series "with/against the flow: Contemporary Photographic Interventions" mounted by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen).

It will showcase two positions in which performative interventions are central to the artistic work. Using the media of photography and video, the artists comment playfully, and sometimes ironically, on modern-day urban life and its visual setting. They explore architectural space as an expression of society given concrete form, revealing gaps in the fabric of the big city, questioning things we have seen many times before, and making the inconspicuous visible.
 
The juxtaposition of works by Stumpf and Onorato & Krebs highlights different modes of intervention in the image. While Stumpf stages his body in relationship to urban space and the landscape, Onorato & Krebs work with pyrotechnics and wooden constructions that become elements of the real architecture by virtue of the laws of optical perspective. These approaches betoken an expanded sense of photography, film, and documentary practice. The artists test out the limits of the tools of their trade in ways that are both subversive and artistic, in the true sense of the word, using visual tricks and deceptions to create suspense and illusion—the very opposite, in fact, of documentary evidence. In doing so, they move away from the idea that such an attitude should forgo any kind of staged intervention. Rather, the artists use enactments to make a pointed response to the world of images around us.
 
At the presentation in Guangzhou, the exhibition includes three artistic positions from China, selected in conjunction with Chinese curators. Chen Wei (b. 1980 in Zhejiang Province) imagines new urban architectures; Li Lang’s work (b. 1969 in Chengdu) observes the social realities of urban and rural China as seen through the window of a train; while Cao Fei (b. 1978 in Guangzhou) shows a dystopian version of life in a metropolis.
 
The exhibition will be on view at the Contemporary Art Museum in Guangzhou until 23 February 2020 and then travel to Shanghai and Nanjing.
 
About ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)
ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) is Germany’s oldest intermediary organisation for interna­tional cultural relations, having celebrated its centenary in 2017. It promotes a peaceful and enriching coexistence between people and cultures worldwide. ifa supports artistic and cultural exchange in exhibition, dialogue and conference programmes, and it acts as a centre of excellence for international cultural relations. It is part of a global network and relies on sustainable, long-term partnerships. www.ifa.de/en

Press contact:
Guido Jansen-Recken, Tel. +49.(0)30.284491.19, presse(at)ifa.de