In the still of the night

The history of photography is not least a history of the way political crises and global conflicts have been depicted. The photographic image was long regarded as a dependable document of reality and therefore more than suited to analysing historical processes. While we now lack the certainty we once had about the objectivity of photography, its images today play a different role when it comes to dealing with the complex issues affecting society.
The exhibition entitled “IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT“ brings together five artistic positions that examine political crises and conflicts as long-term, multi-layered phenomena. The intrusion of political interests into our private lives, the relationship between power and the individual is the linking element in an exploration of the complexity of the reality that surrounds us.

While Edmund Clark looks at an extreme form of state control in “Control Order House“ (2011), in “Wüstungen”“ (2017) Göran Gnaudschun and Anne Heinlein address the issue of the impact of political power on the individual.
In “Song“ (2018) Jelena Jureša uses the history of a song and its connection with historical events to reflect on political aspects of remembering and forgetting. For Hrair Sarkassian in “Homesick“ (2014), the model of his parents’ home in Damascus is a means of exploring his own past as well as current fears and threats. In Ahlam Shibli’s “Occupation“ (2016/17), al-Khalil/Hebron becomes the focal point for analysing a state of emergency that has now become permanent.