Short Bio

Agnes Matthias, art historian and curator. She is particularly interested in the museum institutionalization and scientific history of photography as well as contemporary photographic strategies of memory and media reflection. Exhibitions for the Museum Folkwang Essen, the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, and the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, among others. Selection: Zeitkapsel. Musealer Raum als Bild. Anja Bohnhof/Karen Weinert, Werner Lieberknecht, Eduard Klein, Ricarda Roggan (2019), Grit Schwerdtfeger. Zehn (2017), Stefan Moses. Lovis-Corinth-Preis 2014 (2015), Heimat? Osteuropa in der zeitgenössischen Fotografie (2014), KunstFotografie. Emanzipation eines Mediums (2010/11), Carina Linge. Einsamer Eros (2010).

Portrait: © Karen Weinert/Thomas Bachler, from the series "(New) People of the 21st Century", 2020.

Curatorial Statement:

'Before, After, Behind. This selection includes works in which, for me, the imaginary potential of photography resonates in each specific way - quietly, poetically, thoughtfully. They are stage, canvas, or trace, pointing to something that has already happened or may yet take place, to what was once there and what may yet come to pass. We wish, project, reconstruct and think further. What does the back of the photo paper show and why were three portraits removed from the plug-in album? The small box with many compartments - what was in it? Who is placed in front of the paper background and what kind of room do you get behind the curtain? And what does the scar testify to? Just as the cosmos is created in the studio, the world disappears behind the red pane - and is no more than an imaginary image. Ten times photography as a form of possibility.'

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