Fragile Identities

Fotoworkshop with Tobias Zielony

KUNST HAUS WIEN is delighted to announce a photographic workshop with German photographer Tobias Zielony on the topic “Fragile Identities – Portraying Youth. Photography Between Subjective Closeness and Objective Distance”. The workshop will be held from 27–30 July 2017, at the KUNST HAUS WIEN. It will be based in the extraordinary rooftop apartment of Friedensreich Hundertwasser above the KUNST HAUS WIEN where lectures and discussions will take place, and participants will be shooting throughout the city of Vienna.

"I think that I can trigger something, when I show up somewhere, and I think that the adolescents have an idea of how they want to present themselves. The camera is a stimulus for calling up gestures or patterns that they have seen elsewhere.” – Tobias Zielony

Fragile Identities

Portraying Youth. Photography Between Subjective Closeness and Objective Distance


Theme of the workshop:
The photographic portrait refers to a real person and his or her alleged identities and roles. In this case the dogma of the objectivity of photography means that a good photo shows a person the way he or she really is. However, it is not clear at all how a person actually is and whether a photograph is an objective form of representation. Quite on the contrary: photographs are themselves constructions of identity and reality.
This four-day workshop with photographer Tobias Zielony deals with youth and with the significance of pictures in the lives of adolescents. Photographic images have become part of our everyday life and play an important role for adolescents in the building of identity. If we try to explore the subject of youth by means of photography we have to take into consideration the pictures published in the media that are part of the everyday life of young people. Classic documentary photography seems not entirely suited for this purpose. Rather, new and experimental formats are needed that deal with the omnipresence of the media in today’s world.

Details on the workshop:
Each participant is presented with a project idea (e.g. migration, social media, adolescents and public space etc.). Based on this idea they each have to develop their personal approach to the topic (e.g. portrait series, self-(enactments), selfies).
After that each of them has to find a young person or group of persons he/she considers interesting and would like to portray in his/her photographs.

The fragility of identity is a question that will be explored on the basis of the person(s) portrayed and via the format of the photographic portray to be developed under the guidance of Tobias Zielony.

All those who are already working on a project on this topic can continue this in the scope of the workshop.

On the last evening there will be a barbecue in the roof garden of KUNST HAUS WIEN, and on this occasion each project will be presented to the participants of the workshop and to selected experts from the field of photography based in Vienna.  

Required equipment: digital camera, laptop; if you wish, you can also bring an analogue camera, video camera, Polaroid camera etc.

Tobias Zielony (b. 1973 in Wuppertal) is a Berlin-based, internationally renowned photographer and filmmaker. He studied documentary photography at the University of Wales and at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig. Zielony’s accurately observed portraits deal with “random forms of social interactions”, i.e. the self-enactment above all of young protagonists in public space. Tobias Zielony’s works were shown in solo exhibitions in several museums including Berlinische Galerie (2013), MMK Frankfurt, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2011), MAXXI Museum Rom (2010) and Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig (2010). 2015 he showed his work "The Citizen, 2015" in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennial, for which he was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2016.

Facts:
27–30 July 2017: Four day workshop, each day from 10 am–6 pm
30 July 2017, 6 pm: Closing evening and presentation

The participation fee is € 600 (excl. 20% VAT) for four days, max. 15 participants.
Two discounted places are available for students for € 450 (excl. 20% VAT)
The price includes:
•    Tuition from Tobias Zielony
•    Daily meal and closing evening
•    Assistance from the KUNST HAUS WIEN production team
•    Portfolio review with the curator of the KUNST HAUS WIEN

Once participants have been selected they will be expected to pay a non-refundable deposit of € 300 within ten days. Participants must then pay the remaining balance one week before the start of the workshop. Min. 8 participants, max. 15 participants.

Venue
The workshop will take place in Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s extraordinary apartment on the roof of the KUNST HAUS WIEN. The 5th floor space, which he designed for himself and features an undulating floor and a spectacular roof garden, complete with mature trees, will provide an inspiring space for the sharing and discussion of work.
 
KUNST HAUS WIEN
Untere Weissgerberstrasse 13
1030 Vienna/Austria
www.kunsthauswien.com

How to apply

Please send a brief text about yourself, a brief text about your work and why you think you would benefit from this workshop, up to 20 Jpeg images (use www.wetransfer.com) and a link to your website if available to workshop@kunsthauswien.com

25 June 2017: Final deadline for applications
29 June 2017: Announcement of participants’ selection

If you have further questions concerning the workshop, please contact Verena Kaspar-Eisert, curator of KUNST HAUS WIEN: verena.kaspar-eisert@kunsthauswien.com

We are looking forward to seeing your applications!