IMAGINE REALITY
RAY 2015 Fotografieprojekte Frankfurt / RheinMain
Date: 20 June to 20 September 2015
RAY Fotografieprojekte Frankfurt/RheinMain will once again present outstanding international positions of photography at over 12 venues in Frankfurt and the Rhein-Main region. With the title IMAGINE REALITY the main exhibition on display at MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, the Museum Angewandte Kunst and the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt as well as six partnering projects will showcase images of subjective and staged realities by over forty contemporary artists.
In its second edition the international Photography Triennial sets a special focus on exclusive new commissions. The artists’ commissions will be presented within the main exhibition as well as in the partnering institutions in Frankfurt and the region. A selection of these commissions by RAY 2015 on the initiative of the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain will remain within the local collections. With this, RAY 2015 does not only present the exceptional focus and expertise of all its partners in the field of photography but also strengthens the sustainable development by enabling this unique form of commission funding.
In 2015 RAY extends its reach to Wiesbaden with two projects: the NKV Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden will showcase a new production by the Singapore artist Ming Wong (*1971), which will be featured alongside his video piece Me in Me. In this 3-channel video installation the artist enacts different female roles: a Japanese Geisha, a contemporary woman and a futuristic spaceship inhabitant. Against the backdrop of the theme IMAGINE REALITY his work deals with the genre of the self-portrait as a means to go beyond the body, gender and the time that one lives in. Next to video, the artist works in the fields of photography, performance and installation. In 2009 he was selected for the Singapore Pavilion of the Venice Biennale.
The German photographer Nicole Ahland (*1970) will develop and complete a multiple complex series for the spaces of the Museum Wiesbaden. In her photographs the artist deals with space, light and time and creates painterly, abstract versions of rooms with elemental characteristics of photography such as transparency, layering and blurring. Through radical-minimalist manipulation of light and space she creates images that address themes such as the fleeting moment, void, silence and seeing as such.
The Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, which has been inviting and exhibiting photographers in Darmstadt since 2005 will show a new commission by the artist Georges Rousse (*1947). By interventions in the architecture and the referral to the position of the viewer, he deals with the transition of space into image. With color, paper, text or wooden structures he creates two- or three-dimensional objects in space, which he subsequently photographs from one particular perspective. This blends objects and architecture in such a way that they appear two dimensional. The impact of his images goes beyond the aesthetics of tromp d’oeil or op art; image and space permeate each other.
Further partners in Frankfurt and the region include the FKV Frankfurter Kunstverein, the Stiftung Opelvillen Rüsselsheim and the Marta Hoepffner-Gesellschaft für Fotografie. The FKV Frankfurter Kunstverein, will present a new production by the American artist Trevor Paglen (*1974). The Stiftung Opelvillen Rüsselsheim will once again be represented as a partner by featuring new works by the artist Jan Vanhöfen (*1961).
Beyond this, new productions by renowned international artists such as Barbara Breitenfellner (*1969), David Claerbout (*1969), Kathrin Sonntag (*1981), Jan Tichy (*1974) and the artist duo Gusmão & Paiva (*1979 / *1977) will be included in the main exhibition IMAGINE REALITY on display at Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt am Main, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst and Fotografie Forum Frankfurt.
Additionally, RAY 2015 is collaborating with the three significant corporate collections in the Rhein-Main region. Firstly, the finalists of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015 will be presented at the MMK 3 of the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main during RAY 2015. The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is an annual award established by The Photographers' Gallery, London, in 1997 and has been in partnership with the Deutsche Börse Group since 2005. The collections DZ BANK Kunstsammlung as well as the Sammlung Deutsche Bank will also be represented with photography projects during RAY 2015.
Information regarding the additional RAY 2015 program involving universities of the region, art education, photography workshops and lectures will follow in the beginning of the new year.
RAY 2015 is an initiative of the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, Sammlung Deutsche Bank, DZ BANK Kunstsammlung, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, FKV Frankfurter Kunstverein, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main and Museum Angewandte Kunst in cooperation with partners in Wiesbaden, Hofheim and Rüsselsheim.
Artists of RAY 2015 Fotografieprojekte Frankfurt / RheinMain (prelim list)
Nicole Ahland (*1970 DE), Barbara Breitenfellner (*1969 AT), David Claerbout (*1969 BE), Jonas Dahlberg (*1970 SE), Hans Op de Beeck (*1969 BE), Cristina de Middel (*1975 ES), Joan Fontcuberta (*1954 ES), João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva (*1979/*1977 PT), Beate Gütschow (*1970 DE), Barbara Kasten (*1936 US), Cinthia Marcelle (*1974 BR), Maix Mayer (*1960 DE), Abelardo Morell (*1948 CU/US), Trevor Paglen (*1974 US), Georges Rousse (*1947 FR), Viviane Sassen (*1972 NL), Kathrin Sonntag (*1981 DE), John Stezaker (*1949 GB), Jan Tichy (*1974 CZ), Jörn Vanhöfen (*1961 DE), Sascha Weidner (*1975 DE), Ming Wong (*1971 SG), Wolfgang Zurborn (*1956 DE) and many more.
Curators: Anne-Marie Beckmann (Art Collection Deutsche Börse), Peter Gorschlüter (MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst), Jule Hillgärtner (Kunstverein Braunschweig), Alexandra Lechner (Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie), Celina Lunsford (Fotografie Forum Frankfurt) und Matthias Wagner K (Museum Angewandte Kunst).
RAY 2015 Program Press Conference
Tuesday, 5 February 2015, 11 am
at Museum Angewandte Kunst
Schaumainkai 17
60594 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: +49 (0)6172 – 999-4692, Fax: +49 (0)6172 - 999-9823,
kontakt@kulturfonds-frm.de, www.kulturfonds-frm .de
Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain
Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage 1-5
61352 Bad Homburg
Image Credits:
1. Cristina De Middel, Ijewa, aus der Serie 'This Is What Hatred Did', 2014 © Cristina De Middel
2. Beate Gütschow, 2005, © Beate Gütschow, VG-Bildkunst, Bonn, 2015
3. Simon Starling, The Nanjing Particles (After Henry Ward, View of C.T. Sampson’s Shoe Manufactory, with the Chinese Shoemakers in working costume, North Adams and vicinity, ca. 1875), 2008, Ausstellungsansicht / exhibition view MMK 1, Foto/photo: Axel Schneider
