Welcome to a seminar about Ecology, Capitalism and Photography.
Guests
Véronique Souben (DE/FR)
Director of the National School of Photography in Arles (ENSP Arles)
Aurélie de Lanlay (FR)
Directrice adjointe
Les Rencontres d’Arles
Jérémy Cheval (FR)
Researcher
École Spéciale d’Architecture and Strate Lyon Design School
Mathieu Asselin (VEN/FR)
Photographer
Kateryna Radchenko (UKR)
Director of the International Odesa Photo Days Festival
Sandrine Teixido (FR)
Eco-feminist and Science Fiction Writer
Alejandro Léon-Cannock (PE)
Philosopher and Photographer
Sami Rintala (NO)
Founder of Rintala Eggertsson Architects
Elisa Loncón (CH)
University Scholar, Linguist, Indigenous Peoples’ Advocate
A detailed program is provided below.
No registration is not required to attend, our seminar is free of charges.
Art exhibitions are characterized by its transience, inevitably fades, leaving only traces to be found in catalogs and archives. In these archives, the focus is on the significance of exhibiting photographs, which play a dual role as complex documentary artifacts and as a means of representation. Beyond mere testimony, the install photographs function as artistic and curatorial tools in the postmodern era.
Given the contemporary interest in various forms of presenting and exhibiting photographs, this seminar offers an overview of exhibition installations and presents them as a metaphorical toolbox. In both artistic production and theoretical reflection, there is an increasing focus on how artistic practices are given meaning through their presentation, incorporating aspects of architectural design, signage, accessibility and mediation, rather than relying solely on the intrinsic qualities of the works themselves. Many contemporary artists consider the form of presentation as a fundamental aspect of their work.
The seminar will also critically examine how cultural institutions conceptualize and communicate environmental issues in exhibitions, lectures and various cultural programs. The aim is to establish a dialog between artistic creation, the current ecological context and its urgency and their pedagogical implications. The approach aims to reflect a broader commitment to environmental actions by not only considering technical, logistical and material aspects of exhibitions, but also pursuing an active positioning through an pedagogical strategy that reflects the contemporary context of environmental urgency.
The intersection of photography, art, activism and media ecology will be explored as a study of the relationships between media technologies, information environments and human societies. The methodological axis of the seminar is experimentation, which legitimizes artistic production in the field of research and allows theoretical production to emerge from creative processes. By fostering the interdisciplinary integration of approaches and knowledge the seminar conceptualizes exhibitions through unique methods and perspectives that defy categorization. It explores different histories of the medium and envisions alternative futures, emphasizing exhibitions as meaningful expressions of life and the life of images. This way of thinking is in line with an examination of exhibition making as a critical practice. The seminar encourages exploring new methods for producing photographic exhibitions and planning a sustainable future through innovative formats and experimentation. It seeks to answer the question: How do these innovative formats and experiments radically transform the production of photographic exhibitions, proposing not only to reflect in our methods but, more crucially, in our understanding of the current environmental crisis, thereby reimagining a path aligned with this urgent challenge.
The target audience of the project is micro art institution owners, artists, curators, exhibition designers, institution leaders, festival producers, writers, critics, policy makers and art students.
All the OTM team member will participate on the seminar: Batia Suter (CH/NL), Francesca Marcaccio(IT), Steffi Klenz (GE/UK), Micheal Raymonds (UK), Smith (FR), Taous Dahmani (FR/UK/DZ), Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger (FI), Orlan Ohtonen(NO), Dan Mariner (UK/NO), Sami Rintala (FI/NO), Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo (CL), Mathieu Asselin (FR) and Johannes Romppanen (FI).
The program is open to all and free of charge. For accessibility information about the National School of Photography in Arles (ENSP Arles), please visit https://www.ensp-arles.fr/
Place: École nationale supérieure de la photographie, 30 avenue Victor Hugo – 13200 Arles
This seminar has been sponsored by Institut Français de Norvège.
