Bodyfiction(s) 2019,
Museum Cercle Cité and MNHA, Luxembourg, 2019
an EMOP international project
Curators: Pierre Stiwer, Paul di Felice
Artists: ORLAN, Katrin Freisager, Carina Brandes, Alix Marie, Arvida Byström
Like painting and sculpture, photography has a long tradition of representing the body of man or woman. Over the last decades, criticism of the representation of the body – particularly that of women – has taken a central position in critical debate, particularly at the instigation of women artists in the wake of feminism.
In the 60s and 70s, this challenge in the artistic community had a very strong political component.
Some fifty years later – while challenging models and clichés continues to be present in artistic production – the means of doing so have changed completely.
Object of fantasy and blue-print of social and individual desires, the body has become a projection surface mirroring the expectations of the individual. Hence the title of “Body Fictions” (Bodyfictions) given to this exhibition.
Katrin Freisager Untitled, 2002
In 1995 in a solo exhibition in Zurich, Katrin Freisager went public with a series of women lying on bare mattresses. The figures of lifesize young women in underwear or half-naked irritated many visitors because of a strang mix of vulnarability and understated (or even absent) erotic tension. These women in panties or bras look at the camera without any desire top lease or attract attention. In contrast to what contemporary critics call the „male gaze“, the camera’s positioning directly above the bodies invited the observer to look down on them without any sense of dominance or erotic desire. At least primary attraction seemed tob e intentionally discarded.
The photography of Katrin Freisager conveys, in comparison to a younger generation, a much lighter, delicate vision oft he female universe wich nevertheless harbours undertones of a not so innosent sensuality. In the sensual, sometimes wild, entanglement of arms and legs oft he pictures here the balanced pasted colours seem to slow down the wilder dynamics oft he body contortions and the erotic rubbing of bodies. Tights, leggings or bandages imprison arms and legs and seem to provide some kind of protection against possible agression. These images seem to allude tot he haunted forests of fairy tales, where shrubs and and branches grab the ill-advised visitor who ventures into their neighbourhood.
Text: Pierre Stiwer, Director and Curator
Bodyfiction International Catalogue 2019, European Month of Photography, 2019
Katrin Freisager, Untitled 1, 2002
C- Print / Diasec
123 x 157 cm
Katrin Freisager, Untitled 1, 4, 9, 10, 2002,
C-Print / Diasec, 123 x 157 cm each
Exhibitionview: Bodyfiction, Cercle Cité, MNHA, Luxembourg, 2019
Curators: Pierre Stiwer, Paul di Felice / Photo: Cercle Cité
Katrin Freisager, Untitled 1 - 9, 2002,
C- Print / Diasec, 123 x 157 cm each