In her book Antrum Rio Staelens showcases images of various „Lourdes grottos“ surrounded by their specific flora. As replicas of The Grotto of Massabielle, part of a Catholic sanctuary in the french city of Lourdes, the Lourdes grottos were re-built in the 19th and 20th centuries in various places, including Belgium. An artificial cave surrounded by a specific rock formation, accompanied by a niche for a statue of Saint Mary, sometimes provided with an altar, these caves represent an important place of local pilgrimage of Catholic believers. Rio Staelens: “Covered by mosses, ferns and rock plants, these sculptures have become one with nature. Often surrounded by exuberant exotic plants, a distant world that shows us the remains of a religious culture is evoked. Like the caves, which are reproductions and therefore a lie, the photographs project an image that is an illusion. A fantasy.“ — Rio Staelens

Beyond Cold War is based on the examination of confrontation areas of the Cold War in Europe. Border regions on which the NATO states and those of the Warsaw Pact stood face to face to each other. — Robert Schlotter

The work of Sara-Lena Maierhofer evolves around the life of a stranger. In Dear Clark, the artist tries to approach Clark Rockefeller, a con man whose life consisted of adopting and abandoning different identities. When she fails to arrange a meeting with the person in question, she decides to study him from a distance. Step by step, the artist comes closer to getting to know her subject; his appearance, his peculiarities, his intentions. How can one construct a profile of someone who constantly readjusts himself? What characterizes a man who systematically defies character? How do you grab someone who constantly aims to breakaway? — Sara-Lena Maierhofer

Fungi are the oldest living species on our planet. They build and spread their communities across human borders, continents, laws … They take over land without asking permission. They clean up toxic messes in disturbed landscapes and shake the land back to life to create livable grounds for animals, plants and maybe humans. They have the power to transport energy between weaker and stronger trees, to keep forests alive or to kill them. Their spores are invisible and spread and spread and spread.  — Dries Segers

Photographed in Dudenpark, Brussels in autumn 2018.

Being a Bulgarian immigrant in Western Europe, I know how important the welcoming and friendly attitude of the local people is for the newcomers. How great my indignation was when Bulgaria, my home country, the place of origin for two million emigrants, tolerated nationalist groups to hunt down Muslim refugees who were illegally crossing E.U.’s external border with Turkey.

The articles in the Western media informing about the activities of the Bulgarian nationalists raised a lot of questions for me. I am trying to express these with the present project: what provokes one’s fear of foreigners; what is the life and history of the local population who live near the border, where different political interests intersect; what is the “Bulgarian” identity exactly made up of; how does the border region reflect what is happening across Europe; is there a “beautiful” nationalism that would help a vanishing nation preserve itself (Bulgaria is said to be the fastest disappearing nation in the world); and, finally, what connects us as people?

The title of the book is borrowed from an inscription from a small chapel in the border area, built in honor of St. Marina: “In faith is power”. I have changed it to “In belief is power” in order to address the relationship of belief not only with religion, but also with different political and economic systems, as well as the consequences of these relationships. — Hristina Tasheva

“In the Leporello entitled Konsens, images of landscapes blend together: rural areas, intermediate areas — out of scope of attention, subsistence agriculture, and a lot of space whose use is not obvious at first glance. Areas that seldom form the beginning or end of a journey but are usually crossed. Grasslands, rock formations, scrub, trees, rivers. A connecting motif are paths – which appear in different forms. The photographs were taken in transit, on railroad tracks over several thousand kilometers on trips across India.
For me, paths embody the opportunity to view a landscape with concentration: fixed points in the passing space. The documentary idea, which was still present during conception, dissolves in the process of photographing, editing and transferring into a new context. The Leporello offers a multitude of perspectives: folded up, it is as compact as a book, unfolded with a length of 7m, a predominant object. Through this duality, and the variety of possible combinations, an open narrative is created.” — Julia Debus
(translated from German by malenki.net)

We were in a train in Japan when my mother told me about my grandfather who died before I got the chance to really meet him. She explained to me how he had a son with a Japanese woman in the 70s. She doesn’t know her brother’s exact age or where he lives. She doesn’t even know his name. That’s how I began observing the faces of those men, aged 40, sharing Japanese and European features and started hearing an increasingly strong voice in my head saying “This might be him!”. Since that day I wonder who my uncle is. What does he look like? What kind of life does he have? 3 years ago I decided to look for him!

Looking for my Japanese Family is the chronicle of this quest where reality sometimes gives away to fiction, and where the new narration becomes part of the family history. — Julie-Marie Duro

Musa x Paradisiaca L.* by Martina Pozzan is an ongoing work on biological diversity seen from an institutional perspective. A silent journey between dormant buds, a view of reassembling the natural at the genetic biodiversity limit. The visual journey crosses seamlessly different collections analyzed: seed banks, in-vitro conservation, cryopreservation and living collections.
*Musa x paradisiaca is the accepted name for the hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The ‘x’ taxonomic classification indicates a hybrid of a species if placed before the species. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are triploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of M. acuminata alone. ‘L.’ indicates the abbreviation of Linnaeus / Carl von Linné, the Swedish naturalist. — Martina Pozzan

If Paul Koncewicz were born in Poland, people would call him Paweł. His parents divorced when he was 1 year old. A few years later, his mother relocated to Germany with her new husband and her two children. Things went well in their new home: Soon they could move from social housing to their own house.
When he met his biological father many years later, Paul Koncewicz had already started studying photography. Having developed a strong interest in portrait photography, he was able to re-approach his Polish relatives from behind the camera. The resulting book project plays out in two parts: One Side for the Polish branch of his family and one for the German one–mixing original photography with family album treasures. A picture of infant Paweł in the arms of his Polish father is quickly followed by a portrait of two grown men sitting on a tricycle. His older German sister looks strikingly similar to his Polish half-sister.
Paul/Paweł portrays two families that are physically separated but close at the same time. Different yet similar. — Paul Koncewicz

When shown in West European news, Bulgaria (my homeland) is described as the poorest EU Member State, where about 1,6 million young people have left the country for lack of opportunities. The parents and grandparents who remain in the country are hoping their children will return someday.

Fifteen years ago, my sister and I immigrated to the Netherlands to be able to survive. Last summer our dear mother became ill. Our father, who shares his life with another woman, concluded: “Now you really have to come back home.” A friend of mine reacted with the words: “Maybe that’s why your mother is ill, because you left her alone.” To make up for the gap that opened in her life, my mother surrounded herself with animals rescued from the street. For her, they are my brothers and sisters. She says: “When you live with animals, you become one”, or, “I am half-animal and they – half-human.” Plants are also her passion, when no one else is around.

This project is a portrait of my homeland, Bulgaria, and my mother, at the same time. I am also asking from the position of a migrant what the moral relationship between me and my parents and homeland is; what it means to come back home; and where is home. — Hristina Tasheva

Y O U T H focusses photographically and linguistically on the structures of the rural life of village teenagers in Germany. The work challenges identification and interconnectedness, team play and group dynamic in local groups, clubs and circles of friends. Which role do youth-culture and fashion, “home” and tradition play in times of an increasing political shift to the right and glorification of life in the country-side? In the book, which is created in line with the exhibition project, the photographs are accompanied by the essay Idealized Images of Rural Life: Between Right-Wing Ideology and the Romanticism of the Everyday by Yasmin El Sayed, as well as an essay and interview with Kathi Seemann about her photographic work. — Kathi Seemann