Based on E

BASED ON TRUE STORIES

Opening: 16. 6. 2023, 19:00
Midissage and reading by Karin Seidner Macke about the exhibition: 23. 6. 2023, 18:00
Finissage: 30. 6. 2023, 18:00
Duration : 17. 06. - 30. 06. 2023

Grünraum 4, 1040 Wien, Favoritenstrasse 22
opening hours: We: 14-16:00, Th: 16-18:00, Fr: 18-20:00
An exhibition in the framework of Fotowien 2023.

The question of authenticity, the depiction of reality has been asked in photography since its invention, photographs have been manipulated since the beginning - be it with technical means or by means of the choice of the image detail and the determination of the context. Truth and lies have therefore always been close together in this genre.

Brigitte Konyen and Michael Michlmayr participate in this discourse with different approaches.

What both works have in common, however, is the refusal of an unambiguous readability of the newly created constructs, which opens up new references and narratives and demonstrates the multi-layered nature of reality.

Brigitte Konyen

Polastories

In earlier works I have already dealt intensively with the subjective charging of images. In this work, too, photos with an unknown context of origin are stripped of their neutrality and provided with texts that place the photos in a new context.

The choice of the Polaroid format is intended to convey the impression of an instant picture, the promise of an image of the immediate now.

Brigitte Konyen 2023

Michael Michlmayr

Public Scenes

A true story is never as true as a fictional one.

William Somerset Maugham

Public Scenes are scenic portraits taken primarily in urban public spaces, based on classic street photography. The pictures are primarily not staged and the protagonists not arranged. They are found everyday situations, although in our time it is not allowed to photograph them for legal reasons. Therefore, after the photograph is taken, a staging is created, whereby the individual, who outwardly defines himself mainly by his face and is thus recognizable, is anonymized by replacing the heads with portraits of mannequins.

On the one hand, this work poses the question of the apparent interchangeability of the individual in his or her daily actions, and on the other hand, whether it is possible to retain the central message of the recorded image by using stand-ins or by deliberately masking the protagonists in the image and eliminating their facial expressions.

Don't the anonymized protagonists, whom we experience in the series Public Scenes in everyday situations and on journeys around the world, also tell a true story?

Michael Michlmayr