"gute aussichten" comes of age! In the eighteenth year of its existence, the renowned young talent prize is a guest at the Künstlerhaus Dortmund with the works of the eight prizewinners. As in the previous year, the Künstlerhaus is the first stop for the exhibition, which will then be shown in Koblenz and Hamburg. A well-known jury selected the winners - all photography students could only take part in the competition with their final theses, which they had submitted to a qualified German institution.
"The “Assuming Control” series is a photographic examination of internet memes and shows their set pieces, which were physically recreated in the studio and rearranged and photographed. References to various communication practices of social media and internet platforms are made and memes' own aesthetics and iconography are emphasized. The works form an intersection between photography, contemporary art practice and meme culture and, when viewed, evoke a memory of visual content that arose from Internet communication. Many of these are easy to decipher, others require insider knowledge, and even the hanging is a meme of its own." (Mara Elena Zöller)
"St Marys Park, also known as Island Field, is considered to be one of Ireland's most deprived areas. Originally planned as a social housing project, the area is now not only geographically isolated due to its location on an island in the River Shannon in Limerick, but also socially. It has become a self-governing community that treats outsiders with mistrust and even defensiveness. The work "Youth of the Island Field" gives an insight into the world of the children who grow up there under difficult conditions, who have to struggle with prejudice and a certain lack of prospects." (Thomas Niemeyer)
"The intermedial diploma work "18 diptychs of photographic research" consists of 18 pairs of images, a publication and a website. In doing so, she uses experiments to question the material and technical foundations of photography. Mostly abstract-looking pictures were created, which the recipients often only get to know through the picture title and the accompanying text. In this way, the publication on display and the website linked via QR codes play a central role. The work can only be recorded using the analogue book and/or the digital website. A medial tripartite division is created by the present original, the printed and the electronic copy. The original, which is typical of the photograph, is an image, and the printed and electronic images show an image of the image." (Carla Susanne Erdmann)
"The series of works “The Individual Below” consists of black and white compositions based on X-ray images and digitally generated interpretations of these. The work addresses the relationship of the individual to data sets in which this is embedded as an abstract form. In addition, the relation to reality of certain photographic techniques is examined. Despite their abstract appearance, X-ray images have the value of being a true representation of reality. A machine learning algorithm specially developed for image generation was trained with hundreds of X-ray images in order to generate images itself, similar to X-ray images. The compositions show montages that each show both elements, the analogue as well as the generated images - recognizable by the different structures of grain and pixels. The images are traversed by border areas, or seams, between the digital and the analogue, past and modern technology, the natural and the virtual, the individual and the masses." (Frauke Schnoor)
"Niewybuch (i.e. Duds) approaches the world of military camps and uniform classes, which have experienced a massive influx in Poland in recent years. In addition to teaching military basics, children and young people are playfully indoctrinated in obedience and patriotism. The young soldiers appear like play figures, whose frozen facial features hide any emotion and thus raise the question of the emotional effects of military training. Between fake blood, drill and the unreserved handling of weapons, the tension between the childish search for adventure and the excesses of the Polish military cult is addressed." (Katrin Seidel)
The design of living spaces inevitably reflects the family and Social structures of a time reflect what the current living ideal and the orientate people's personal living dreams. We are looking for a place that enables individualization, identification, belonging and representation. The real estate market is trying to find answers to these wishes. It is anything but an autonomous structure, but rather a product of social, economic and cultural interactions. Since most people still see their greatest happiness in living in their own home, I look at this complex system using model house exhibitions in which various single-family house models from prefabricated house suppliers can be viewed. The furnishings installed in them should make it possible to imagine the future home in the best possible way, to identify with it and then to recreate it. The houses stand there like a goal in life, a promise of happiness, an ideal and superlative. The work "Shoes Can Change Your Life, Ask Cinderella" examines the standardization processes that take place in model houses, during which it becomes clear that living is more than a question of individual taste.
"The spatial installation "Nothing but solid" can be understood as a confrontation with those traces that people leave behind in their surroundings, which have burned themselves into landscapes and places and can be made visible through photographic means. In conversation with poems by the Jewish poet Mascha Kaléko and the Afro-German poet May Ayim, which serve as a data set for an artificial intelligence, a monologue is created in which a new, fictitious lyrical self is formed. Through the medium of this virtual being, which speaks from a socially marginalized position, the artist not only asks questions about identity, but answers them with self-empowerment by placing the statements generated by the AI and her own words in a context from which a dedicated attitude emerges." (Alex Leo Freier)
"In her work, Zoyeon manages to create a feeling that – for her as a foreigner – oscillates between astonishment and helplessness. Zoyeon builds a bridge to the report by Dutchman Hendrik Hamel, taking the viewer on a virtual journey to an imaginary destination, compiled from randomly found images and AI-generated portraits." (Agathe Blume)