The Fotograf Festival aims to promote photography and emphasise its openness as a medium and explore the intersection of photography and contemporary art. It is also the only Czech festival that presents a collection of fascinating artistic practices revolving around a specific theme selected by the curators. Each edition of the festival focuses on a different theme, which is common for all solo and group exhibitions. The organisers go beyond the conventional understanding of photography, exploring the richness of the medium and its integral connection with contemporary art. The festival’s partnership projects – Fotograf Gallery and Fotograf Magazine – share similar goals.
Courtesy of the Czech Centre in Warsaw, I had an opportunity to attend this extraordinary event. The opening of this year’s festival together with the launch of the latest issue of the magazine, which took place on 21 September 2023, coincided with the opening of the second edition of Prague Art Week. The simultaneous inauguration of both events was held in the National Gallery Prague, the largest and most important art institution in the Czech Republic, which fulfilled the concept of the Fotograf Festival. This location highlighted the lively dialogue between photography and contemporary art, giving rise to a rich programme of accompanying events that will run until 11 February 2024.
Overwhelming pressure
HYPERTENSION23, the title of the 13th edition of the Fotograf Festival as well as the main exhibition, , refers to the everyday tension in the human mind caused by interaction with modern technologies that expose our attention to the constant visual pressure to notice, experience, and react to something. In today’s reality, “photography demands to be liked, a video to be seen and a hashtag to be categorised immediately”, as we read in the excerpt from the manifesto of this year’s festival. Visuality seeks attention and expects an instant reaction. The concept of this year’s festival was developed by the curator Monika Čejková.
Inspiration for the main theme was “The Extreme Self”, a graphic novel by Douglas Coupland, Shumon Basar and Hans Ulrich Obrist, which can be described as an apocalyptic reflection on the 21st century conveyed with an ironic sense of humour and imagination. All fourteen chapters of the book are based on the meme-style graphics combined with a philosophical analysis of reality. The images in the book were created by some of the world’s leading artists, photographers, technology experts and musicians. The language of memes turned out to be the best of its kind to reflect on the present and foreseeable future.
This book inspired the curator to choose the main focus of the festival – HYPERTENSION, while some of the featured graphics were displayed in the form of a two-part exhibition titled “The Extreme Self: Age of You”. The images projected onto the facade of the National Gallery in Prague serve as an introduction to the main section of the exhibition arranged inside the gallery. The second part of the show can be viewed in the underground, namely the Můstek stop, which will most likely encourage emotionally moved passers-by to stop for a moment, reflect on the relationship between humans and new technology and ultimately visit the main show in the gallery. Moreover, the exposition in the National Gallery attempts to visualise some disturbing directions of technological progress by focusing on art from the last decade that reflects changes in human identity.
Reality and Fantasy: a private performance
Lynn Hershman Leeson
One would naturally expect the exhibition addressing such an urgent issue to open with a piece by a contemporary artist. However, the curator opts for a subversive return to the past in the form of an analogous performance by Lynn Hershman Leeson, one of the pioneering new media artists. In her practice, she explores the mechanisms that govern societies, with a particular focus on the relationship between people and technology, as well as the role of art as a tool for overcoming external restrictions, such as censorship or political repression.
The curator concentrated on the retrospective of Roberta Breitmore, a fictional character created by Lynn Hershman Leeson in the years 1973–1978 as her own parallel identity or alter-ego. The character itself can be seen as a prototype of Miss America, as Roberta’s creation adapted to the mainstream and social expectations, and emerged in the context of the American counterculture and liberation movements. By portraying the concept of womanhood as masquerade, Roberta Breitmore embodied the tropes and attributes usually associated with femininity, such as make-up, way of walking, gestures and mannerisms in speech and writing. In fact, Roberta lived in the society. The life of this “fictional” character has been carefully documented as an account of certain societal repression in the form of 144 drawings and CCTV camera frames, along with other artefacts, such as cheques, credit cards and driving licence.
The exhibition includes documentation of all stages of her life, from birth to death. In spite of her strongly analogue nature, Roberta acted almost like a computer program or machine. Her identity’s development was influenced by a society, which was often so destructive, that the artist ended her project with an exorcism. Ultimately, by creating her own alter-ego Lynn Hershman Leeson managed to blur the boundaries of reality by performing a real-time simulation. This private act is an example of how technology was used to construct another identity or parallel reality even before the advent of new technologies. It is worth mentioning that Roberta Breitmore returned in the years 1995–2000 as CyberRoberta, her AI-generated incarnation.
The project by a pioneering new media artist offers a point of departure for further reflection on the relationship between the man and new media. The other sections of the exhibition are divided into three chapters, representing the aspects of online life and the entrapment of the human mind on the Internet. Each section of HYPERTENSION23 is represented by a different group of artists selected by the curator.
Digital Hallucinations
Markus Selg, Cecile B. Evans, Ian Cheng, Lawrence Lek
Leaving the trailblazing piece by Lynn Hershman Leeson behind, we enter into the contemporary reality in which life happens mostly in the immersive cyberspace. Čejková’s selection of projects draws attention to the transformation of the human body into a digital mass. The virtual self becomes the embodiment of a fantasy, while digital space is inhabited by avatars.
Markus Selg is a German multimedia artist examining a dynamic relationship between an archaic myth and computer technology through the mediums of digital painting, sculpture, installation, theatre and VR. He draws much of his inspiration from prehistoric cave paintings. In his ChatGPT-generated manifesto published in the new issue of the Fotograf magazine, we can read that “the use of digital technology provides us with an opportunity to traverse the limits of our reality and build the platform for algorithmic rituals”.
“Arcadia,” Selg’s piece displayed at the exhibition, refers to the mythical land of happiness. It consists of a large-scale, digitally produced tapestry. Evoking the social and cultural connotations of the mythical realm, computer-generated images open the door to the world where nature, technology, reality and simulation become interconnected. The fabric motif also appears in the outfit of a shepherd placed at the centre of the installation, which creates a modern paradise in the world of digital hallucinations.
New technologies and intimacy
“The main issue of people is their physical body” – Sin Wai Kin
Stef van Looveren, Sin Wai Kin
Stef Van Looveren is a Belgian artist interested in questioning gender norms in reference to sexuality and identity. In an ironic and often humorous approach to fashion, they mimic social behaviours in the context of visual culture. Their surreal or Surrealist pieces often combine sculptural installation with performance. Van Looveren works with their own body to abolish sexual and gender taboos while addressing the way the queer community operates online.
During the opening of the festival, the audience could watch Stef Van Looveren’s performance related to the piece ONUS, a smartphone-shaped sculpture that could be interpreted as the self-portrait of the artist. The smartphone screen displayed religious imagery, liturgy artefacts and the Instruments of the Passion. Covered in silver paint, artist worshipped in front of the altar-sculpture. The silver paint and ONUS itself might indicate that the artist was part of this piece almost in a physical way, as if they derived from it.
A hole in the silver object compelled viewers to take a look inside. The act of taking a bow in front of the smartphone-like altar while being covered in silver paint alludes to a well-known symbol. The elements around a hole resemble the Star of Bethlehem, which guided the wise men from the East towards the newborn Christ. One could even argue that the sculpture and performance constitute the relict of the Biblical event, as well as a representation of the evolution of intimacy and sexual experiences in the online community.
Science fiction documentary
Public and digital space
Stephanie Comilang, Martins Kohout
Stephanie Comilang makes exceptional documentary films described as science fiction documentaries. Although the name of this genre coined by the artist is an oxymoron, Comilang believes that a conventional documentary format limits her possibilities. Whereas a documentary with an added element of fiction allows her to abandon the notion of the single truth and explore its multifaceted nature and different perspectives. The artist often deals with thesubjects such as an individual operating in the capitalist society, intercultural communication, mass migration or global labour.
“Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to me, Paradise)”, on display at the HYPERTENSION23 exhibition, chronicles the lives of three domestic workers from the Philippines, who live in Hong Kong. It portrays these women’s ritual of sending stories and memories to their loved ones. The ritual always takes place at the end of each working week. On Sundays, Filipinas who work as housekeepers have to leave their workplace, which is also their home. They gather in the Central district to spend this free time together.
The story is told from the perspective of Paraiso, a ghost played by the drone, who tells us about the inner isolation associated with being uprooted from one’s own culture. Paraiso looks forward to Sundays, when she can meet with other women and together they send vlogs, photos and messages to their families. The rest of the week is spent in isolation, filled with loneliness and yearning. The ghost of Paraiso acts as an intermediary and symbolises the idea of paradise as a home located somewhere between the Philippines and Hong Kong.
A unique presentation of Comilang’s work is also worth mentioning. The installation reminds us of a private space, a house. The space has been lined with cardboard boxes from which Filipinas build their makeshift homes to spend their only free day of the week in a friendly environment. The viewer can simultaneously experience the private digital space and feel like a guest in a temporary house.
The projects realised as part of the Fotograf Festival go beyond the walls of the National Gallery in Prague. The aforementioned “The Extreme Self: Age of You” is a good example. A unique event, the performance by Johannes Paul Raether, built a dialogue between the historic legacy of Prague and new technologies. In his practice, he embodies genderless creatures called Schwarmwesen. They inhabit toxic spaces filled with tourists, observing the circulation of bodies in the trade and tourism sectors. The colourful creatures engage both performance participants and bystanders. This time round Schwarmwesen appeared on the Charles Bridge in Prague, where it/they seemed to confound tourists. The participants of the performance communicated with the creature through headphones, but the tourists must have been truly snapped out of their Sunday walk rhythm. The fictional creature generated a situation and took control of the public space.
The Fotograf Festival presents a broader perspective on photography and highlights its integral relationship with contemporary art. The HYPERTENSION23 exhibition and associated events have the potential to release some of the tension caused by the influence of new technologies on our lives, y allowing us to come to terms with the way they pervade our reality.
