The exhibition "with/against the flow" with Viktoria Binschtok and Michael Schäfer in Iași will be shown in two separate parts:
First part with Michael Schäfer: Opening on 12 February 2026, running until 5 March 2026.
Second part with Viktoria Binschtok: Opening on 11 March 2026, running until 2 April 2026.
What potential lies in our constantly changing approach of photography? What opportunities do the new formats of visual communication offer? How can documentary methods be combined with interventions in the image? Or, more generally: What characterizes contemporary artistic photography? These are the central questions of the exhibition series "with/against the flow. Contemporary Photographic Interventions", initiated by the ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. The exhibition series presents artists who live in Germany, have established their own distinct visual idioms and are now interrogating the medium of photography afresh. With artistic interventions they intervene in the very substance of the image or even in external reality itself. The question remains as to whether this work should still be labelled "documentary" or whether it is, in fact, a form of realism that spills over into fiction. Borderline Art Space will present two artistic positions from this exhibition series, one after the other, with works by Michael Schäfer and Viktoria Binschtock.
Viktoria Binschtok (born 1972 in Moscow, living in Berlin) connects the real world of the streets with its representation in digital spheres to show us how images on the internet no longer merely reflect our world, but rather create one of their own. In her work she makes equal use of both her own photographs and images from the internet and other media sources that are increasingly dominated by digital algorithms. The artist exploits the randomness of these new image formats and playfully challenges their potential. With this artistic approach she provides insights into the paradoxes and distortions of this new image order, even though it is an order that follows mathematical and economic principles. Binschtoks works represent a new generation of artists today who are extending the notion of photography and its documentary potential by addressing the increasing autonomy of images in a networked world.
Curators:
Florian Ebner has been head of the Photography Department of the Centre Pompidou in Paris since 2017.
Christin Müller is a freelance curator and author from Leipzig.
The ifa agora is the central platform for the network, collection and archive of ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen in the field of art. It is a place of transcultural exchange – just as the agora in ancient Greece was a city’s most important meeting place and marketplace. It shows ifa’s relationships and brings them together online.
With over 20 touring exhibitions currently travelling across the globe and with its diverse event programmes on contemporary art, the ifa links the German art scene with internationally active cultural creators and forms cooperations and networks. The projects, many of which were developed in co-creation with local partners, cover the various disciplines of modern and contemporary fine arts – from current themes in architecture, photography and design to Bauhaus and monographic exhibitions such as Rosemarie Trockel or Marcel Odenbach. These projects generate local meeting platforms and allow international perspectives on topics of global relevance. The ifa also provides loan exhibits to interested museums.
ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen works in the fields of art and civil society to build understanding and trust between people around the world. It promotes democratic civil societies and advocates freedom in art and science and freedom of opinion. It contributes its international knowledge and networks to debates in the fields of art and culture, politics and society, widening perspectives in Germany and around the world. ifa is supported by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the state of Baden-Württemberg and its capital Stuttgart.
