It’s not about nothing

How do images make social and political realities tangible? What kind of knowledge do they convey? And how do they actively participate in shaping the realities they depict? The exhibition presents film and photographic works that employ documentary strategies to probe the limits of the visible. The artists reflect on war and exile, the persistence of history in the present, systems of order and media events, struggles for visibility, and moments of powerlessness and solidarity. By interweaving their own images with archival and media material, as well as references to film history, they create multilayered narratives.

With works from the GfZK Collection by Azra Akšamija, Éric Baudelaire, Margret Hoppe, Sharon Lockhart, Christian Nyampeta, Marcel Odenbach, Artūras Raila, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Michael Scheffer, Maya Schweizer, Shirana Shahbazi, Andrzej Steinbach and Anna Witt, along with works on loan from Clemens von Wedemeyer

During the opening, photos will be taken for documentation purposes and the GfZK’s communication channels.

Informationen zur Barrierefreiheit

How do images make social and political realities tangible? What kind of knowledge do they convey? And how do they actively participate in shaping the realities they depict? The exhibition It’s not about nothing presents film and photographic works that employ documentary strategies to probe the limits of the visible. The featured artists lead us to a variety of settings: a Nazi fortress in the south of France or a tomato plantation in Apulia, a prefabricated housing estate in Halle or the interior of the Statue of Liberty in New York, a publishing house in Sarajevo, or a square in Bratislava. In these works, the artists reflect on war and exile, the persistence of history in the present, systems of order and media events, struggles for visibility, and moments of powerlessness and solidarity. Join co-curator Sabine Weier on a tour of the exhibition.

How do images make social and political realities tangible? What kind of knowledge do they convey? And how do they actively participate in shaping the realities they depict? The exhibition presents film and photographic works that employ documentary strategies to probe the limits of the visible. The artists reflect on war and exile, the persistence of history in the present, systems of order and media events, struggles for visibility, and moments of powerlessness and solidarity. By interweaving their own images with archival and media material, as well as references to film history, they create multilayered narratives.

With works by Maryam Jafri and Pınar Öğrenci/Nuri Musluoğlu and diploma presentations by Pooya Sedighi Mournani and Merlin Rainer

During the opening, photos will be taken for documentation purposes and the GfZK’s communication channels.

Accessibility information

How do images make social and political realities tangible? What kind of knowledge do they convey? And how do they actively participate in shaping the realities they depict? The exhibition It’s not about nothing presents film and photographic works that employ documentary strategies to probe the limits of the visible. The featured artists lead us to a variety of settings: a Nazi fortress in the south of France or a tomato plantation in Apulia, a prefabricated housing estate in Halle or the interior of the Statue of Liberty in New York, a publishing house in Sarajevo, or a square in Bratislava. In these works, the artists reflect on war and exile, the persistence of history in the present, systems of order and media events, struggles for visibility, and moments of powerlessness and solidarity. Join curator Franciska Zólyomon a tour of the exhibition.

Information on accessibility