August 21st. 3pm Opening

Future Sex

Photography
Installation
Exhibition 

Shinichi Honda

I have always been obsessed by the desire to create “humanized machine”. Humanity naturally has the ability to generate life miracle. But why am I specially interested in humanized machine? 

One of the answers might be traced back to the roots of Greek mythology, in which the figure of Eros had more or less enlightened me. As for literature, particularly among those contemporary ones, the works Dead Girls and The Allure, both composed by Britain writer Richard Calder, left an indelible imprint on my memory. Within his books, there was a group of whore gynoids (robots designed to look like human female) – the mixture of modern technologies and myths – that became the germ of my images. The gynoids, according to the character setup in those books, resembled the elaborate clocks and watches with precious metal, like the luxuries of decadent European brands such as Cartier and Bvlgari. Besides, I have been honored to meet some American scientists because of the cover-shooting program for magazine in the United States. The world view contained in Nanotechnology, raised by those scientists, which was the uncertain concept between infinitesimal machine and virion, was enormously attractive to me. Furthermore, as a photojournalist, I took part in the Artificial Life Conference of the middle 1990s in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, the experience of which also had a great impact on me. It was in that period that I decided to pursue my artistic creation for reflecting the trend of advanced science. 

In 2002, I was consigned to a photography project for the metal installation artworks made by Mr. Masukuni Fujikake, the lecturer of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. That was the very opportunity spurring me on to the efforts of approaching Richard Calder’s world view via injecting my imagination into the works beyond the  photo studio. The outcome consists of the empty body created by Mr. Fujikake, the background world and the spiritual viscera embedded by me.

Zapallal & Yunrinaki

Artist: Andres Marroquin Winkelmann

A country with 27,012.900 inhabitants and 39.3% poverty. One third of the population lives in rural areas and 9 millions live in Lima, Peru’s political and economical capital city. Two years ago, 20% of the children didn’t have an opportunity to attend school.

The number of slums surrounding the capital city has grown radically over the last 15 years. Some became neighborhoods and others even districts. Zapallal lies on the peruvian coast, only 40 km out of Lima’s city center. To get to Yurinaki, a small village located in the jungle, you have to get over an elevation of 4755m above sea-level and travel 14 hours using public transport. Peru’s climate diversity, rough geography and economical situation increase cultural differences within the country.

With the help of the communities of Zapallal and Yurinaki, I started a photographic project, that deals with life conditions in these particular surroundings. I wasn’t interested in creating a classic reportage or using a journalistic approach. I wanted the community to participate in the project and involved my subjects in the creative process. They helped me composing the images, selecting and arranging characteristic elements of these surroundings, searching for typical spaces to stage every-day situations in order to deal with social and political issues. Most of the people now living in Zapallal came from the countryside to the outskirts of Lima, hoping to find better work opportunities and establish a solid economical wealth. The high percentage of unemployment and an overpopulated capital city didn’t leave them many chances except starting all over again. Most of the people I photographed in this project experienced this social instability.

Rural areas are almost ignored by the government, they don’t even exist on Peru’s financial map. In places like Yurinaki, this kind of isolation increases the already conservative mentality and later on evolves into distrust. The elder generations doubt and disbelieve in almost everything related to change. Absurd and old fashioned habits still remain active; young men marrying older women, obligating them to work on the fields, or having as many children as possible to increase the number of workers inside the family. In most of the cases families are only learning how to improve and adjust simple ideas about hygiene, social behavior and human rights through younger generations and thanks to educational programs supported by international and private institutions. Most of these children motivate their families to set new values at home, they are often considered being role models or even heads of their families. Thereby they set a new starting point to the development of a social behavior.

I organized a 5 day photography workshop for kids between 8 and 14 years. During this week, using Point&Shoot cameras, the participants had to photograph the following tasks: Bedroom, family, food, their home and their street. They had to shoot one task everyday, having five pictures for each of the tasks. With the help of their parents they took notes and described the motives they shot, having an opportunity to follow and perceive the reality of their own work. During the workshop I visited each of the families, spending some time with them. Using the same cameras as the kids, I also photographed the predefined tasks, simulating a child’s view by shooting from a low perspective. After one week of editing, I organized a little exhibition for the people involved in the project and the community, a show where the primary stage in the development of a visual world was displayed. The pictures the children made and the ones I took were mixed together on one wall, a presentation where the viewer couldn’t differentiate the pictures I made from the ones of the children. Presenting both photographic results at a same level, promoted the recognition of the children’s potential and achievements by the community.

This project depicts a photographic assembly of the ongoing process in this particular social development. The staged images were the result of an interaction with the community and after they’ve been introduced to a new way to do so, it’s again the children, who create a “picture” of their surroundings, which they show to the community in form of an exhibition, offering another possibility to communicate and sharing their perspectives. Through the children of Zapallal and Yurinaki, the families now have an opportunity to shape their old fashioned habits into new solid values. With this project I wanted to encourage interactions within the families and to help increase the personal and social development of these children.

“Conditions” ,

Artist: Andres Marroquin Winkelmann
Reviewed by Inbal Lily Koliner
As a child, whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always felt puzzled. The only answer I’ve managed to come up with was that ‘I’m certainly not going to be like everybody else’. What exactly this difference might consist of, I couldn’t – of course – specify.

As I grew up, and haven’t turned out quite the anarchist I might have had in mind, I’ve realized that a unique identity isn’t measured according to social labels. Yet, to this very day, I still see freedom of thought and expression and a pluralistic attitude towards others as highly important.

With this belief in mind, there’s no wonder I was keen to participate in Andres’s project – a project which “raises questions about social norms, and invites the viewer to enter a world in which boundaries fail to create differences, while differences are not only accepted, but even embraced”.

Interacting with subjects on a sociological as well as on a personal level, this work deals with individuals and individual choices. It reminds each and every one of us that we’re free to make our own decisions and to ask ourselves where we want to go.

Andres and I have been close friends for several years when he invited me to be a part of this project and I was curious to see how it might feel like to work with him, using methods that until then I’ve only heard about.
I discovered that staging a situation allows Andres’s photographer-subject relationships to stay true to his natural way of thinking. Instead of trying to spontaneously capture an “authentic” intimate moment – an attitude which might have been stressful and demanding for me – or even to re-produce such a moment from memory, he framed an abstraction of it, composed in a visual arrangement of me standing in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at my reflection.

This method allows him to go beyond the documented experience. The result doesn’t describe certain surroundings, nor does it portray a specific life-style, but rather exposes raw, untraditional forms of vulnerability, suggesting a sense of familiarity.

This is Andres’s visual narrative, a narrative which calls for mutual respect and acceptance while offering a prism of possible conclusions regarding cultural behavior.

Andres Marroquin Winkelmann Solo Exhibition

kunst.licht Photo Art Gallery Presents

Opening: 3pm April 10th, 2010
Venue: 210 Wulumuqi Rd, Shanghai
April 10th – June 10th, 2010(Tuesdays closed)

kunst.licht photo art gallery is pleased to announce the launch of its new exhibition AS THEY ARE on April 10th. We will embrace the touching works which are included in two series-Zapallal & Yurinaki and Conditions- created by the photographer, Mr. Andres Marroquin Winkelmann.

Insights into the artist and his works!

Susana Raab‘s upcoming exhibition at kunst.licht (vernissage on Oct. 17th, 3pm) titled “Super America” will be accompanied by a  four day hands-on workshop (Oct. 19th – Oct. 22nd) with Susana herself.

Titled “Super Shanghai”, this workshop will give students the chance to work the streets of Shanghai side-by-side with a Pulitzer price nominated professional documentary photographer and photo journalist who also happens to be a just wonderful, warm and amazing human being

The hands on training will be embedded into discussions about technique and equipment, a historical overview and intensive critique of the students’ current work and their assignment to shoot “Super Shanghai”.

The total cost of the workshop will be 2500 RMB per seat and there will be only 12 seats available.

To learn more about Susana Raab click here. Also download the workshop outline in English and Chinese.

See you shooting “Super Shanghai”!

To apply for this workshop, please send us a short statement about yourself and 10-20 low resolution images.

Contact: T 21 624 907 37, doris (at) kunstlicht.sh

On October 17th, 2009 kunst.licht gallery will open a new exhibition with the American photographer Susana Raab. Starting with this introduction we will highlight different aspects of Susana’s work and life in a small series.

Susana Raab is a documentary photographer who began her career as a photojournalist in Washington, DC covering politics.  She worked for the New York Times Washington bureau for four years (where she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of a shooting on Capitol Hill) before attending graduate school at Ohio University School of Visual Communications.  While in graduate school, she interned at the Palm Beach Post during the 2004 hurricane season and her work there was part of a team package on the hurricanes that earned the Post the distinction of finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature photography.

In Ohio, she began two long-term projects: Consumed: Fast Food in the US; and Off-Season: America at Leisure.  These projects have received much recognition from the White House News Photographers Association, The Ernst Haas/Golden Light Awards, the Center (formerly Santa Fe Center for Photography), American Photo, Photo District News, and Photo Espana, among others.  Her work is widely exhibited, both nationally and internationally, most recently at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid, and the Noorderlicht Photofestival in the Netherlands.

More information about Susana Raab can be found at www.susanaraab.com

kunst.licht Photo Art Gallery Shanghai is pleased to announce the inaugural nextkunst.licht group exhibition, on view from Saturday, June 20, through Saturday, September 19, 2009, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 20, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.

2009 nextkunst.licht exhibition is the first of a series of exhibitions dedicated to seeking out the most promising talent among a young generation of Chinese photographers and giving them the opportunity to present their work before an international audience.

The first edition of nextkunst.licht will feature the works of five artists: Fei Tian, Ge Fang, Sun Yanchu, Tang Like, and Wen Jian.

The exhibition is open to the general public on:
June 20th-September 19th 2009, 11am-7pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 20, 4 – 6 pm
Location: 210 North Wulumuqi Road, Shanghai, China

Art Afternoon with Shen Wei

The exclusive M1NT Shareholder’s Club in Shanghai provided the perfect backdrop for a very special art afternoon with Shen Wei. Selected guests enjoyed the reception with food creations by head chef Ian Pengelley and the artist’s one hour lecture on the successful series "Almost Naked" and the upcoming "Chinese Sentiment".

"Since it first began more than a decade ago, Paris Photo has won recognition as the world’s premier fair for still photography. This unique event offers a panorama of fine art photography from its early days to the present day, and presents a forward-looking overview of global trends and expressions available in this medium." – from the Paris Photo website

And indeed it is what it says it is, a show, an event, a fair with some of the finest vintage and contemporary photography on display. With Japan as the guest of honour it was the first time for Paris Photo to pay special attention to the far east and its rich heritage in fine art photography. A good sign and a step into a very important direction as it might pave the way for a show focusing on Chinese contemporary photography.

I talked to many gallery directors, curators and collectors and they are all full of praise for the fantastic organization, support, press coverage and the very knowledgeable crowd of visitors from all over the world. If you’re into photography as a form of art, be it as a professional, collector, connoisseur or student, there is no way around Paris Photo. And last but not least it is in Paris…

Impressions from Paris Photo 2008

We are proud and pleased to announce that Shen Wei has won the "Excellent Foreign Photographer Award" at the Ping Yao 2008 International Photo Festival.

Congratulations from everyone at the gallery!