Do any of us own our face and name? When we are photographed by a lover, or for an ID card, or by the police for the criminal catalogue, is that an image our continuous face, our possessed identity? Or does the captioning, filing, shuffling of document, recategorize meaning, and reallocate status? For this workshop and discussion Alexandra Symons-Sutcliffe will present the story of Astrid Proll, photographer, curator, and one-time member of the Red Army Faction, via documents and objects that mark moments in her change in status from civilian student to imprisoned terrorist and back to a free citizen. Dealing with Proll as both the subject and the technician of documentary photography. What can we say of the portraits of a woman who for a period lost ownership of her own face and name? What function is identity when it can be so disposed?

Alexandra Symons-Sutcliffe is a curator, artist, and art historian, specialising in documentary photography, film, and performance. As a curator, she has organised exhibitions and programmes at galleries and museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen, and Maxwell Graham/ Essex Street, all in New York. Jupiter Woods, Mayday Rooms, Four Corners, and Arcadia_Missa, all in London. Gallery 44 and MaMa in Toronto, and the Halle für Kunst Lüneburg. She writes regularly for the art press and academic publications. Her first book, Astrid Proll: The Opposite of Experience, will be published by Wirklichkeit Books in 2025.

The event is organised by Vera Lutz (academic assistant class of Florian Pumhösl).

The event will be held in English.

Individual studio visits: Thursday, May 30, 2024, students can register at Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!