| | | |  | | | Bieke Depoorter: Agata, 2017
© Bieke Depoorter / Magnum Photos | | | | | BECAUSE THE NIGHT | | | | | | | 7 December 2019 – 16 February 2020 | | | | Opening: Friday, 6 December, 6pm | | |  | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | Georg Gatsas: Dancer III, 2009 | | | | | | The themed exhibition "Because the Night" is dedicated to the motif of night, with all the promise that it holds. Photographic works by Bieke Depoorter, Georg Gatsas, Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo, Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, and Tobias Zielony present the events of those special hours in a variety of (socio)cultural and topographical settings. The many different forms that nightlife can take, the visual languages of various music scenes, and the modes of expression of individual subcultures play a key role, as do the dark tonality and specific lighting that reflect the mysterious atmosphere of the night.
Going out, plunging into a crowd of dancing revelers, fleeing everyday life for a few hours, and indulging one’s desires: for many, clubs and bars are places of freedom, an escapist paradise, a source of entertainment. The thrill of these visits, however, also derives from the fact that the venues follow their own rules, often finding expression in transgressive and excessive, sometimes even violent behavior. But, at the same time, they can also offer a place of refuge, safe spaces within which (secret) identities are negotiated or lived out, where subcultures and communities can develop freely outside of the mainstream and away from society’s moral norms and value systems. | | | | | |  | | | | Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo: from the series Slaghuis, 2018 | | | | | | German photographer Tobias Zielony (*1973) lived in Ukraine from October 2016 to July 2017. During this time, he came into contact with the underground queer and techno scene in Kiev, which developed out of the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013/14. The title of Zielony’s work —Maskirovka— refers to one of the Russian military’s traditional tactics: deception. He focuses on the "little green men," Russian special forces that occupied the Crimea and supported the pro-Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine, hiding their faces behind green balaclavas. Masks were also an important safeguard for the Maidan protesters, protecting them from the teargas that was used against them and hiding their identity from the authorities. Importantly, then, the mask operates as a kind of shield. Zielony shot a total of forty-two photographs and made an animated film composed of 5,400 individual images. Together they create a cacophonous visual account of the Euromaidan, captured on the street and in clubs and woven together with material from news reports on Kiev. The multilayered reality of a country in upheaval is narrated through a community that seeks to reoccupy the symbolic and political space of its surroundings and finds its freedom under cover of darkness.
In his series Slaghuis (slaughterhouse or massacre), South African photographer Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo (*1993) confronts us with the problems attendant upon growing up in a shebeen, an illegal tavern in a Johannesburg township. His photographic collages and mostly minimalist compositions constitute narrative fragments whose dense arrangement conveys a sense of how difficult it must be when one’s own home no longer acts as a safe haven but becomes a place whose nights are characterized by a lack of selfcontrol and brutality. High levels of alcohol consumption coupled with extremely demanding social conditions and a concomitantly high propensity for violence form a toxic structure that over the years dominated the artist’s nights. Parallel to the pictures, which are almost devoid of any human presence and show evidence of the excesses such as broken glass, Hlatshwayo shares his inner conflicts with us, the feeling of helplessness and the resulting inability to openly address these issues, mediated by brief streams of consciousness noted down in words. The dialogue of image and text gives a voice to what cannot be voiced.
Georg Gatsas’s work cycle Signal the Future follows various protagonists from the London club scene from 2008 onwards, shortly after the British music genre Dubstep made a name for itself internationally. Portraits of clubbers that look like snapshots taken in front of brick walls and group shots of dancers abandoning themselves to the bass-driven sound are juxtaposed with architectural perspectives of the metropolis at night. In addition to capturing a dynamic, ethnically diverse community that is closely bonded by the music, the pictures also tell the story of a city in transition. The streets of the South London district of Brixton are nothing like what they used to be at the end of the 2000s. The district has now been largely gentrified; the rawness, the former unused potential has given way to large lucrative real estate projects, and scenes have either evolved from subculture to mainstream or broken up completely. | | | | | |  | | | Tobias Zielony: Mask, 2017
From the series Maskirovka
© Tobias Zielony, Courtesy KOW Berlin | | | | | | The video work Estás Vendo Coisas (You Are Seeing Things) is the artist duo Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca’s take on the Brazilian pop music movement Brega. Brega usually denotes a style of music with sentimental lyrics and often dramatic exaggerations— it is therefore associated with rather bad taste. Nevertheless, the Brega movement should be seen as a complex socioeconomic phenomenon, characterized by sophisticated production and distribution methods. The format of the music video plays a crucial role here: it gives a voice to a new generation of pop artists operating in the borderlands of northeastern Brazil, who act as role models and are developing a potent image that people can identify with. The film was shot with current figures from the scene and follows two protagonists—a hairdresser and musician whose nighttime moniker is MC Porck and the firewoman and singer Dayana Paixão—on their way from the studio to the stage. In the darkness of the nightclub, melodies about love and success collide with expressive gestures and bright colors—an extraordinary musical.
Bieke Depoorter met Agata at a strip bar during a two-week stay in Paris in 2017 and featured her in the photo series of the same name, which is an ongoing project. In the developing intimacy between the photographer and her subject, a story unfolds that at times has a documentary flavor, while at others it seems to veer into fiction. The night becomes a defining moment that time and again reveals boundaries and processes of interpersonal negotiation. Wherever closeness is palpable, distance is never far away. The power of the dialogue between Bieke and her muse Agata plays out in the background, furtively: Who looks at whom? Who feels more attracted to whom? What constitutes playful altercation with one another? What is the significance of the stern and serious gaze that is followed by the camera? The images are combined with personal notes, creating an intimate journey into the nights they experience together and the emotional worlds that go with them. Bieke and Agata both agree that the photographic portraits have brought Agata greater self-knowledge—however, after more than two years of working together, the role of the photographer has changed as well. | | | | | |  | | | | Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca: You Are Seeing Things, 2016 | | | | | | unsubscribe here
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