STREEPLE

Slava Mogutin is in town. OK, almost. He is here as part of the Streeple show that opened last Friday in Berlin’s Kunstraum Richard Sorge. The opening was amazing and featured also artists J.Jackie Baier, Alex Da Corte, Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek / Exactitudes, Versus Collective (Gihan Tubbeh, Musuk Nolte, Renzo Giraldo).

“When you think we’re lost, we’re exploring, What you think is worthless, I’m adoring.” – Robbie Williams

Kunstraum Richard Sorge is the setting for a photography exhibition that maps the complex area between empathy and exploitation, identification and voyeurism.

According to the Urban Dictionary, “streeple” denominates street people. The show’s photographers view their subjects as protagonists, not models; they are chosen and documented for what they are, and not brought to play any kind of role. Photographed (or casted) in the streets, they (and we, the viewers) are made aware of their specialness.

Placed at the center of attention, the protagonists are drawn into a dialog with the photographer based on the gradual development of trust. At best, this process leads to empowerment: “claiming the right to a face,” as photographer J.Jackie Baier puts it, of those living on the fringes of society, and beyond.

Using mise-en-scene to make the real more truthful, the photographers show that there is posing involved in every photo, no matter how “straight-up”.

Kunstraum Richard Sorge,

Landsberger Allee 54, 10249 Berlin.

Oct. 17th – Nov. 13th 2010, Wednesday – Saturday, 2 – 6 pm.

Closing reception: Nov. 13th , 7 pm.