©Dannielle Bowman, Dannielle Bowman, October’s Shadows (I), 2019, from the work "What had Happened"
From June 7th to July 4th, 2021, the FOTODOKS Festival will present its tenth edition with “A house is a house is a house” - a group exhibition with an interdisciplinary accompanying programme and an extensive publication. Together, the contributions reflect the current understanding of home. Lothringer 13 Halle and online.
Emine Akbaba (DE), Dannielle Bowman (US), Cyprien Clément-Delmas & Lindokuhle Sobekwa (FR, ZA), Buck Ellison (US), Nanna Heitmann (DE/RU), Sohrab Hura (IN), Jochen Lempert (DE), Noelle Mason (US), Drew Nikonowicz (US), Now You See Me Moria (ES, AF, SY), Arzu Sandal (DE) und Henk Wildschut (NL)
Twelve photo projects, often developed over many years and shaped by personal experience, and the multi-perspective festival program with lectures, readings and discussions, open up to the audience a broader perception of this dense and multifaceted social space.
Home often means a dwelling, a place of intimacy or retreat. We withdraw here and lock the door against the outside. Thought of less as an architectural structure, it is linked to feelings and moods that arise from each individual's experience. Starting from a place of care, belonging, constancy and the creation of forms of life that is
believed to be safe, it remains for many a place of longing or memory that manifests itself in its absence. Most of the time, there is an inherent local bond and yet it remains primarily tied to human coexistence. In juxtaposition with the home of others, their possible deprivation and the non-domestic space, it unfolds its socio-critical potential and illustrates how domestic conditions determine our development in life. Contrary to an idealized perspective of the home, it is also associated with precarious living conditions, traditional family images, the danger of violence, homelessness, denial of belonging, discrimination and / or loneliness. The urgent discourse on questions of gender, race and classism also finds a home in this perspective. From here, each one of us looks out into the world.
“A house is a house is a house” is dedicated to current perceptions of home and refers to social inequality that is increasing due to the colonial, patriarchal and capitalist power structures that exist around the world.
The title „A house is a house is a house“ simultaneously forms and deconstructs a concrete image of what a home could represent. Conjuring repetitively to sense certainty or to ponder how, where and when a „home“ can be imagined, it suggests a rhythm in which the movement towards or away from a home can be visualised in all its diversity. A townhouse, is a castle in the air, is an embrace...