The supposed documentary quality of the photomechanically reproduced image is a trope that artists have continually used as a tool of manipulation and play. Whether altered in the darkroom, or now through digital means, the “real” picture has been worked over through various means to produce an effect that was not initially intended with the click of the shutter. Found photodocumentation from print media and archives have been reappropriated and juxtaposed by artists to produce salient political critique without words.

Within the larger framework of the exhibition cycle, Dialogues on Art Reproductions, which juxtaposes received histories of photomechanical reproduction with contemporary artistic responses, the present installation meditates on the persuasive power of the photograph. Through a multimedia display of film and still photography, it aims to show how artists manipulate the found image and its originally intended meaning in order to deconstruct, re-contextualize, or cast doubt on our understanding of the world as we (think we) know it.

The third exhibition in the cycle Dialogues on Art Reproductions is prepared by the writer and curator Meghan Forbes in collaboration with art historian Hana Buddeus, visual artist Zbyněk Baladrán, and graphic designer Adéla Svobodová.

Artist: Sami Al-Salamoni, Zbyněk Baladrán, Kvet Nguyen, André Feliciano