Opening on Friday January 31, the gallery will present an exhibition of photography, curated by the German collector Wilhelm Schürmann. Bringing together various kinds of photography, this exhibition entitled "Someone else with my fingerprints" will feature 150 photographs from the last 70 years.
Centered around the theme of influence, identity and transfer of identity, this exhibition does not distinguish between press photographs, publicity photos for films, fashion photography, science photography, documentation photography, etc. Since the history of photography consists mainly of photographs that were never intended to exist in an art context, the question that this exhibition introduces is: which levels of meaning and perception occur, when photographs from various sources such as these, enter the estethically charged domain of art? Which levels of meaning and perception occur when these photographs are taken out of their traditional context and placed in an often spontaneous and seemingly arbitrary combination? In this process, an image known as a photographic readymade can become a narrative document.
The theme of the exhibition is further defined by the notion of role models and followers. Gerhard Grönefeld's work "Junge Stockenten auf Holzente geprägt" features three little ducklings blindly following a wooden duck. A portrait of Martin Kippenberger and his daughter, taken by Kippenberger's wife, represent the range of interpretation possibilities that this exhibition offers, in asking the questions: Who seduces whom? Who forms whom? There is a fine line between seduction and ....
Another theme in the exhibition, the encounter of the masculine perspective with the feminine, is presented in Meg Cranston's photograph "Someone else with my Fingerprints", after which this exhibition was titled. A naked young woman, shown standing in two positions with her back towards the camera, is framed by twenty finger prints, which turn out to be female finger prints enlarged to the size of those of a man.
A 184-page soft cover catalogue with 158 reproductions, will accompany this exhibition. The catalogue includes an essay entitled "Agent in Memory Palace" by Hanjo Berressem.