RE-VISIONING THE WORLD THROUGH NON-MALE EYES

Exhibition curated by Brad Feuerhelm and Natasha Christia.

July 2-8, 2018
Cosmos Arles Books

The Family of No Man is the culmination of an open call that has brought together 494 female and inter-gender artists from all around the world working in the medium of photography. The aim of this radical curatorial proposition is to revisit Edward Steichen’s original The Family of Man, a seminal photographic exhibition and publication from 1955, which in its time was described “as one of the most ambitious undertakings in an art museum”. Performing the patterns and production modes of the original project, which garnered both appraisal and controversy, The Family of No Man is conceived of as an open-ended physical and virtual platform of how the world today is seen through non-male eyes. The participants’ works are displayed in a series of interactive outdoor and indoor installations while new images, uploaded in real time to an online platform, will constantly update the selection during the Cosmos Arles Books week. This material in tandem with the visitors’ contributions will be deposited in a time capsule. Through its visual discourse, program of talks and parallel actions, The Family of No Man aspires to establish a critical space for an all-inclusive debate on gender equality, photography and its historiography.

Nowadays the tragedies of our time are told by bombing with atrocious images. That move us away and therefore lead us not to think about it. My attempt is to address complex and painful issues by showing attractive and reassuring images, using aesthetics to make people to start the thinking. The word aesthetic originates from the Greek verb αἰσθάνομαι, which means “I perceive” Assuming therefore that aesthetics indicates the process of knowledge through the use of the senses, the intent of this work is therefore to use aesthetics to activate the processes of thought.
The first part of this work “The weight of lightness” refers to events related to the war in Syria, in particular the use of chemical weapons on civilians, children and hospitals. The sense of impotence I felt when faced with these facts led me to think about the weight of lightness. The work consists of a triptych of monochromatic photographs representing the three main types of gas used in war: the Sarin gas, the chlorine gas and the iprite also known as mustard gas. Each photograph is linked to an attack that took place in three different places in Syria in three different years.
Gas Sarin, 4.04.2017, Khan Sheikhun, Syria.
Gas Chlorine, 11.08.2016, Aleppo, Syria.
Gas Mustard (yprite), 21.08.2015, Marea, Syria.

Les Rencontres De La Photographie – ARLES 2018

Cosmos Arles Books

Rue Condorcet, 13200 Arles
13200 Arles

July 2-8, 2018

H. 9-20

http://thefamilyofnoman.com