{"id":15506,"title":"The Dockers' Museum — La Criée Centre d’Art Contemporain de Rennes, Rennes, 2013","dimensions":"","date_begin":null,"material":"","art_status_id":13,"legal_status_id":47,"category_id":58,"platform_id":1,"deleted":false,"asset_count":3,"stream_count":0,"collection":"","cached_tag_list":"","publishing_process_id":1,"annotation":"","date_end":null,"reference":"","stream_count_app":12,"permalink":"the-dockers-museum-la-criee-centre-d-art-contemporain-de-rennes-rennes-2013","description_ca":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eAllan Sekula is a renowned photographer, theorist, historian of photography and writer. His work is concerned with the consequences of the economic changes arising from globalization and questions the function of documentary photography in the media, in art and in society.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eUsing color photography in conjunctions with texts, Allan Sekula focuses on the economy, a theme considered incompatible with the field of art. Cultural critics frequently consider the economy to be a negative issue of little interest, although culture itself is under the unmistakable influence of market forces. For Sekula, it is irrelevant that photography has finally been recognized as an emancipated artistic medium, alongside painting or sculpture; he considers the modesty of the medium, and the possibility it offers of attaining knowledge through keen observation, to be more interesting. In this way, photography has a special ability to describe economic life within the parameters of the visual arts, through what is commonly called \u0026rsquo;documentary\u0026rsquo;, Sekula attempts here to offer a clear alternative to the photography culture consecrated by the contemporary system of museum/galleries, which \u0026ndash; according to the artist \u0026ndash; in essence prepares an \u0026rsquo;antiquarian future\u0026rsquo;, a future that condemns art to conformity with the museum\u0026rsquo;s relict of the past.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn this sense Bertolt Brecht is relevant for Allan Sekula\u0026rsquo;s method of working \u0026ndash; a reference that helps us to understand his photographs. In a famous remark, Brecht commented that a photograph of the Krupp or the AEG factories \u0026rsquo;tells us nothing (\u0026hellip;) something must be \u0026quot;constructed\u0026quot;\u0026rsquo;. At a talk Allan Sekula stated: \u0026rsquo;Brecht\u0026rsquo;s underlying point is often forgotten or dismissed as quaintly irrelevant to postmodernity: the surface, for example, the architectural fa\u0026ccedil;ade or the interior rendered in a descriptive photograph, reveals nothing of the underlying system of exploitation. Reified social relations are in a sense invisible to ordinary empiricism, and can only be understood through recourse to abstraction or (\u0026hellip;) through the movement upwards from the concrete to the abstract, and back down to the concrete.\u0026rsquo;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn recent years, Sekula has worked on long documentary projects inspired by contemporary political events. These projects have given rise to photography sequences and major series of work that the artist often rounds off with the publication of a book. In these books, the method used to contextualize the photographs is reinforced by the publication of the artist\u0026rsquo;s texts \u0026ndash; always present at his exhibitions \u0026ndash;, emphasizing the division of Allan Sekula\u0026rsquo;s practical work between writing and artistic production.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u0026ndash; J\u0026uuml;rgen Bock\u003c/p\u003e\r\n","short_description_ca":"","description_it":null,"short_description_it":null,"cached_primary_asset_url":null,"cached_actor_names":null,"hide_from_json":false,"prev_platform_id":null,"description_uk":null,"short_description_uk":null,"description_tr":null,"short_description_tr":null,"mhka_works":false,"category":{"en":"Installation","nl":"Installatie","fr":"Installation"},"poster_image":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/034/961/large/CF027022.jpg?1487077707","poster_credits":"© Photo: Marc Domage. © Allan Sekula Studio. Courtesy La Criée.","translations":[{"locale":"en","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eAllan Sekula is a renowned photographer, theorist, historian of photography and writer. His work is concerned with the consequences of the economic changes arising from globalization and questions the function of documentary photography in the media, in art and in society.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eUsing color photography in conjunctions with texts, Allan Sekula focuses on the economy, a theme considered incompatible with the field of art. Cultural critics frequently consider the economy to be a negative issue of little interest, although culture itself is under the unmistakable influence of market forces. For Sekula, it is irrelevant that photography has finally been recognized as an emancipated artistic medium, alongside painting or sculpture; he considers the modesty of the medium, and the possibility it offers of attaining knowledge through keen observation, to be more interesting. In this way, photography has a special ability to describe economic life within the parameters of the visual arts, through what is commonly called \u0026rsquo;documentary\u0026rsquo;, Sekula attempts here to offer a clear alternative to the photography culture consecrated by the contemporary system of museum/galleries, which \u0026ndash; according to the artist \u0026ndash; in essence prepares an \u0026rsquo;antiquarian future\u0026rsquo;, a future that condemns art to conformity with the museum\u0026rsquo;s relict of the past.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this sense Bertolt Brecht is relevant for Allan Sekula\u0026rsquo;s method of working \u0026ndash; a reference that helps us to understand his photographs. In a famous remark, Brecht commented that a photograph of the Krupp or the AEG factories \u0026rsquo;tells us nothing (\u0026hellip;) something must be \u0026quot;constructed\u0026quot;\u0026rsquo;. At a talk Allan Sekula stated: \u0026rsquo;Brecht\u0026rsquo;s underlying point is often forgotten or dismissed as quaintly irrelevant to postmodernity: the surface, for example, the architectural fa\u0026ccedil;ade or the interior rendered in a descriptive photograph, reveals nothing of the underlying system of exploitation. Reified social relations are in a sense invisible to ordinary empiricism, and can only be understood through recourse to abstraction or (\u0026hellip;) through the movement upwards from the concrete to the abstract, and back down to the concrete.\u0026rsquo;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn recent years, Sekula has worked on long documentary projects inspired by contemporary political events. These projects have given rise to photography sequences and major series of work that the artist often rounds off with the publication of a book. In these books, the method used to contextualize the photographs is reinforced by the publication of the artist\u0026rsquo;s texts \u0026ndash; always present at his exhibitions \u0026ndash;, emphasizing the division of Allan Sekula\u0026rsquo;s practical work between writing and artistic production.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ndash; J\u0026uuml;rgen Bock\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"nl","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eAllan Sekula is een gerenommeerd fotograaf, theoreticus, fotohistoricus en auteur. Zijn werk heeft betrekking op de gevolgen van de economische veranderingen van de globalisering en stelt de functie van documentaire fotografie in de media, in kunst en in de samenleving in vraag.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eAllan Sekula focust op de economie, een thema dat geacht wordt onverenigbaar te zijn met het domein van de kunst, en gebruikt daartoe kleurenfotografie, samen met teksten. Culturele critici zien de economie vaak als een niet erg interessante, negatieve zaak, hoewel cultuur zelf onmiskenbaar be\u0026iuml;nvloed wordt door marktmechanismen. Voor Sekula is het irrelevant dat\u0026nbsp; fotografie uiteindelijk erkend werd als een ge\u0026euml;mancipeerd artistiek medium naast schilder- of beeldhouwkunst. Voor hem is de bescheidenheid van het medium interessanter, en de mogelijkheid die het biedt om kennis te verwerven via scherpe observatie. Fotografie heeft\u0026nbsp; een bijzonder vermogen om het economische leven te beschrijven binnen de parameters van de beeldende kunst, door middel van wat gemeenlijk de \u0026#39;documentaire\u0026#39; wordt genoemd. Sekula probeert hier een duidelijk alternatief te bieden voor de fotografiecultuur waaraan het hedendaagse systeem van musea/galeries zich wijdt, dat \u0026ndash; volgens de kunstenaar \u0026ndash; in wezen de voorbereidingen treft voor een \u0026#39;antiquarische toekomst\u0026#39;, een toekomst die kunst veroordeelt\u0026nbsp; overeen te stemmen met het museumrelict uit het verleden.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn die zin is Bertolt Brecht bijzonder relevant voor Allan Sekula\u0026#39;s werkmethode \u0026ndash; een referentie die ons helpt om zijn foto\u0026#39;s te begrijpen. Een beroemd commentaar van Brecht luidt \u0026#39;een foto van de Krupp- of AEG-fabrieken vertelt ons bijna niets (...) iets moet \u0026ldquo;opgebouwd\u0026rdquo; worden\u0026#39;. Tijdens een lezing stelde Allan Sekula: \u0026#39;Het onderliggende argument van Brecht wordt vaak vergeten of afgedaan als ouderwets en irrelevant voor de postmoderniteit: de oppervlakte, bijvoorbeeld de architectonische gevel of het interieur dat wordt weergegeven in een beschrijvende foto, onthult niets van het onderliggende systeem van uitbuiting. Gere\u0026iuml;ficeerde sociale relaties zijn in zekere zin onzichtbaar voor de alledaagse empirie, en kunnen alleen begrepen worden door gebruik te maken van abstractie of (...) door de opwaartse beweging van het concrete naar het abstracte, en terug naar beneden, naar het concrete.\u0026#39;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDe afgelopen jaren werkte Sekula aan lange documentaire projecten die hun inspiratie halen\u0026nbsp; uit hedendaagse politieke gebeurtenissen. Deze projecten hebben geleid tot fotosequenties en omvangrijke reeksen, die de kunstenaar vaak afrondt met de publicatie van een boek. In deze boeken wordt de methode die gebruikt wordt om de foto\u0026#39;s te contextualiseren versterkt door de publicatie van Sekula\u0026#39;s teksten \u0026ndash; die er ook altijd zijn op zijn tentoonstellingen \u0026ndash;, wat de nadruk legt op de opdeling van Allan Sekula\u0026#39;s praktisch werk in schrijven en artistieke productie.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u0026ndash; J\u0026uuml;rgen Bock\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"fr","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"ru","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"de","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"es","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eAllan Sekula is a renowned photographer, theorist, historian of photography and writer. His work is concerned with the consequences of the economic changes arising from globalization and questions the function of documentary photography in the media, in art and in society.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eUsing color photography in conjunctions with texts, Allan Sekula focuses on the economy, a theme considered incompatible with the field of art. Cultural critics frequently consider the economy to be a negative issue of little interest, although culture itself is under the unmistakable influence of market forces. For Sekula, it is irrelevant that photography has finally been recognized as an emancipated artistic medium, alongside painting or sculpture; he considers the modesty of the medium, and the possibility it offers of attaining knowledge through keen observation, to be more interesting. In this way, photography has a special ability to describe economic life within the parameters of the visual arts, through what is commonly called \u0026rsquo;documentary\u0026rsquo;, Sekula attempts here to offer a clear alternative to the photography culture consecrated by the contemporary system of museum/galleries, which \u0026ndash; according to the artist \u0026ndash; in essence prepares an \u0026rsquo;antiquarian future\u0026rsquo;, a future that condemns art to conformity with the museum\u0026rsquo;s relict of the past.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn this sense Bertolt Brecht is relevant for Allan Sekula\u0026rsquo;s method of working \u0026ndash; a reference that helps us to understand his photographs. In a famous remark, Brecht commented that a photograph of the Krupp or the AEG factories \u0026rsquo;tells us nothing (\u0026hellip;) something must be \u0026quot;constructed\u0026quot;\u0026rsquo;. At a talk Allan Sekula stated: \u0026rsquo;Brecht\u0026rsquo;s underlying point is often forgotten or dismissed as quaintly irrelevant to postmodernity: the surface, for example, the architectural fa\u0026ccedil;ade or the interior rendered in a descriptive photograph, reveals nothing of the underlying system of exploitation. Reified social relations are in a sense invisible to ordinary empiricism, and can only be understood through recourse to abstraction or (\u0026hellip;) through the movement upwards from the concrete to the abstract, and back down to the concrete.\u0026rsquo;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn recent years, Sekula has worked on long documentary projects inspired by contemporary political events. These projects have given rise to photography sequences and major series of work that the artist often rounds off with the publication of a book. In these books, the method used to contextualize the photographs is reinforced by the publication of the artist\u0026rsquo;s texts \u0026ndash; always present at his exhibitions \u0026ndash;, emphasizing the division of Allan Sekula\u0026rsquo;s practical work between writing and artistic production.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u0026ndash; J\u0026uuml;rgen Bock\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"el","short_description":"","description":""}],"actors":[]}