Since summer 2007 the M HKA and the FotoMuseum have cooperated on the exhibition programme for the 4th floor of the FotoMuseum. The common thread is visual culture. Starting from the end of May the M HKA will be running a project on Allan Sekula.
FotoMuseum 4th floor, Waalsekaai 47, 2000 Antwerp
Principally working with photography, Allan Sekula (1951) is also widely recognised as a filmmaker, writer, teacher and activist. Coming from a background in conceptual art, and like many of his generation politicised by the Vietnam War, he has gone on to substantially extend the repertoire of documentary photography. In his practice Sekula has consistently addressed questions of class and the conditions of labour, in tandem with a spirited and rigorous critique of contemporary capitalism. His work avoids the heroic, favouring instead sequences of images which plot complex economic and social processes.
During his career, Sekula has repeatedly returned to the theme of maritime space, through a number of interrelated books, films and exhibitions including Fish Story, TITANIC’s wake and Lottery of the Sea. The current exhibition, Ship of Fools, continues the artist’s investigation into the sea as a forgotten space that binds together shifting sites of production with markets and consumers around the world. It features the voyage of the Global Mariner, a ship that circumnavigated the globe between 1998 and 2000, carrying an exhibition detailing the conditions of workers in the shipping industry. Sekula’s portraits of seafarers, dock workers, port cities and their industrial hinterland register the affects of globalisation on people’s lives. By presenting this ensemble of work, the artist counters the myth that underpins neoliberal ideology of painless flows of goods and capital that constitute international trade.
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula installing his work photo M HKA
Allan Sekula, Ship of Fools exhibition view 2010 photo M HKA
Allan Sekula, Ship of Fools (slide projection) 1999-2010 Courtesy Allan Sekula, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris photo M HKA
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Ship of Fools exhibition view 2010 photo M HKA
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Crew Portraits, from Ship of Fools, 1999-2010, courtesy Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Allan Sekula, Docker’s museum (version 1 for Antwerp en Santos) 1999-2010 Courtesy Allan Sekula, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris photo M HKA
Allan Sekula, Docker’s museum (version 1 for Antwerp en Santos) 1999-2010 Courtesy Allan Sekula, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris photo M HKA
Allan Sekula, Docker’s museum (version 1 for Antwerp en Santos) 1999-2010 Courtesy Allan Sekula, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica en Galerie Michel Rein, Paris photo M HKA
het M HKA is een
