Fotografie
11. November 2023 - 18. February 2024
Costume and Masquerade
Photographs by Suzanne Jongmans and Jason Gardner
Jason Gardner
For centuries, humans have been using costumes and masquerade to define their own identity or to shape a different version of themselves – especially in what we call the ‘fifth season’, carnival, which starts on 11 November, at least here in Germany. Coincidentally, that is also when the exhibition opens. Jason Gardner’s photographs deliver the evidence, that carnival is a truly global phenomenon. The US-American photographer travelled to Brasil, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Macedonia, Austria, Poland, Slowenia, Spain, Trinidad, and to Switzerland and through his home turf, USA, to document the local ways of celebrating carnival.
He considers himself a visual anthropologist who uses his photographs to study the manifold ways of expressing this human tradition. Gardner’s photographs capture the unique features of the different carnival traditions and present a plethora of detailed and very original costumes which are connected to very different customs and histories. They also observe the existential themes of darkness and light, chaos and order, or life and death.
Biografie Jason Gardner
Jason Gardner is a self-trained artist who lives in Paris and New York. He uses photography and videography as tools of visual anthropology to study the culture, music, and rituals of carnival all over the world. Gardner’s works have been published in numerous renowned magazines such as.
Suzanne Jongmans
Clothing has always been a means of distinction, signage, and communication, which becomes apparent in the photographs by Dutch artist Suzanne Jongmans. Inspired by paintings of the great Dutch painters she designs and tailors elaborate costumes that could have been taken straight from the paintings – if they weren’t entirely made of contemporary packing materials like bubble wrap, plastic bags, polystyrene and foam.
In her photographs, Jongmans not only imitates medieval, renaissance, or baroque garments. She also replicates the corresponding visual conventions.
Jongmans work process puts the spotlight on the extraordinary efforts that have been put into the production of paintings as well as clothing for centuries, which is a stark contrast to the throw-away-mentality of modern mass consumption.
Biography Suzanne Jongmans
Artist Suzanne Jongmans lives in the Netherlands and studied textile design and photography at the Academie Voor Beeldende Vorming in Tilburg. Jongmans works interdisciplinary. Her works combine elements of costume design, tailoring, sculpture, and photography. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, France, Saudi-Arabia, Belgium, and Austria.
Curator: Daniela Yvonne Baumann
Opening: Saturday, 11 November 2023, 7 pm
Last day on 18 February 2024, the day of the traditional Funkenfeuer
Sunday, 12 November 2023, 11.30 am
Artist talk and book presentation "We the Spirits"
Jason Gardner and curator Daniela Yvonne Baumann talk about the exhibition, Costume and Masquerade, and about Gardner's new photo book "We the Spirits" with portraits of Traditional Carnival from 16 countries.