THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF GREECE > ACG ART > EXHIBITS > PAST

1. ROB HORNSTRA (The Netherlands) Untitled from the series Roots of the Rúntur..........[Iceland 2005
2. RENJA LEINO (Finland) Mobile 389: Women in Internet, from the series Absent Minds..........[Czech Republic 2005
3. THOMAS NEUMANN (Germany) The Lithuanian Rocket..........[Lithouania 2005
4. ORRI Untitled No. 8, from the series Without Work..........[Slovakia 2005
5. STEPANKA STEIN & SALIM ISSA (Czech Republic) Group of kids, Tynemouth, from the series Ordinary Living..........[U.K. 2005
6. ARTURAS VALIAUGA (Lithouania) Vladas, film maker, 10 years in The Netherlands , from the series Still Identity..........[The Netherlands 2005

Changing Faces: Work

ACG CULTURAL CENTER 11/10-01/12/2006

Opening at 19:30 on Wednesday, 11 October 2006

The American College of Greece - ACG Art, the Hellenic Centre for Photography and the International Photography Research Network (IPRN) present the exhibition of contemporary photography entitled Changing Faces: Work at 19:30 on Wednesday, 11 October 2006.

Changing Faces: Work presents six positions of contemporary photography on the theme of work, taken in various European countries, within the framework of IPRN. Through its Changing Faces programme, IPRN contracts projects with photographers which they carry out during a residence of some weeks in a host country. The aim of Changing Faces is to encourage photographic works which are dedicated to social change and multiculturalism in an expanding Europe. Work, as the central theme of this project, is a subject which has often been taken up throughout the history of photography; a reason therefore to examine its current relevance. Subject to fundamental transformation due to structural change and globalisation, work is a theme which touches equally all the countries participating in the exchange of photographers.

Changing Faces: Work is showing the projects carried out in 2005 by the six photographers who were selected for the first year of the Changing Faces program by a jury in their respective host countries. With quite different photographic starting points, they sounded out the wide spectrum of what work can mean today.

The Dutch photographer Rob Hornstra put together a critical portrait of the Icelandic society during his stay at the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavík, a society confronted by the increasing industrialisation of the once traditional fishing industry. In particular he focuses on the situation of youths in his photographs on the Roots of the Rúnter.

Finnish photographer Renja Leino, who was the guest of the J.E. Purkyne-University in Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic, observed the behaviour of children and young adults in front of their computers - a medium which is fundamentally restructuring the world of work - for her series Absent Minds.

Thomas Neumann, a photographer from Düsseldorf, concentrated on the professional goals and wishes for the future of students in the new EU country of Lithuania. During his time at the Contemporary Art Information Centre in Vilnius he spoke with young Lithuanians. Excerpts from these conversations, juxtaposed with reproductions from advertising as expressions of collective desires, were used as part of his installation The Lithuanian Rocket.

The project sent the Icelandic photographer Orri to Dom Fotografie in Slovakia. In Without Work he developed metaphors for the situation of a country which in his view is still trying to define its position in Europe.

The short breaks from daily routine by members of the British working class in Newcastle upon Tyne were traced by the pair of Czech photographers, Stepanka Stein & Salim Issa, who were hosted by the Locus+ agency, for their series Ordinary Living.

Lastly, in his project Still Identity, the Lithuanian photographer Arturas Valiauga compares the life of Lithuanians in Holland with those of the Dutch in Lithuania; that is the life of people living in these countries because of work. As the guest of the University of Leiden and Paradox he produced a visual study which makes clear that in the end the differences cancel each other out.

Changing Faces: Work, which was first curated at Museum Folkwang by Agnes Matthias, is now curated by Megakles Rogakos at the ACG Cultural Center (17B Ipitou Sreet, Plaka, Athens). Visiting hours are 11:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday, and 11:00 - 16:00 Saturday, through 1 December 2006.

ASPECTS

INFORMATION: ACG Art, The American College of Greece, 6 Gravias Street, Aghia Paraskevi, Athens, GR 15342, Greece, T: +30-210-6009800/1444, E: info@ACGart.gr