Future Memories, group exhibition

Photography has become a mass social phenomenon, from a radical change of analogue to digital methods. From object materials that not only have picture memory assigned, but the created image shifts to a volatile pile of pixels. In the current smartphone photography, the durability of the photo takes only a few minutes.

The Future of Memories exhibition deals with photography in its function of storing cultural memories. The title raises the question of how memories are visible and can therefore become an experience for the viewer (in the future). Looking for the information value of the image, the reception in the magazine and the artistic practice in contemporary photography will be examined.

The design resembling the Karolin Back pattern deconstructs the value of electronic graphic files that were found by the team working at the Central State Archives of Stuttgart on computers. The input “analog hard disk” encourages reflection. In the next series of images it penetrates deeper into the traces of the past of scanned negatives from glass plates.

In his poetic sections, Ulrich Bernhardt dedicates himself to the poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843). Bernhardt experiments with experimental multiple exposures. His panoramas of Greek landscapes melt Hölderlin’s fragmented writing in mystical new photographic interpretations.

The extensive installations of works by Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb deal with archival materials from various sources – public and private. Here the history of the Central State Archives in Stuttgart comes to light, as does the biography of the photographer from Tyrol, Dolores Wintersberger-Wyss (1946-2005).

Photographer Marcella Müller sets off to search for works in the districts of Stuttgart. The sober numbering system provides clues about the hidden pictorial narrative, because apparently unknown places are enigmatic with a minimalist and calm picture.

Volker Schrank has captured a series of confessionals as free-standing furniture. Photographed from the front have a monochrome background. Impressive grasping of these historical objects can be read, but images can not hide the fact that they are symbols of confession as repressive self-reflection.

Future of Memories combines the perspectives of five contemporary photographers from Stuttgart in the field of photography in relation to the exhibition space in the Central State Archives in Stuttgart.

Bettina Michel