For this year´s European Month of Photography the Berlin Fotomarathon is teaming up with PhotoDérive, a project founded by long-time Fotomarathon Team member Andrea Figari in 2013. PhotoDérive explores walking and photographing as art practices, uniting urban exploration, mindfulness and political critique with storytelling. A companion card kit for the urban explorations was designed to help spark creativity and add random situational clues and prompts to support the photographic interpretation of the spaces visited during the Dérive.
From tourism to migration, from exile to persecution, travel shapes our personal stories. ‘Where are you from?’ is a challenging question for anyone who has a patchwork of origin stories.
When a traveller arrives at a new destination, exploration surely follows. We get to know places and they affect us – based on what or who is there (or not), and on what we can (or cannot) do there. Places often have assigned roles: this is where one eats, works, plays, shops, drives, and so on. What if we overcome these limitations? What if we free ourselves from our own limitations in order truly to experience a place and imagine how it could be different?
The exhibition “If on a winter’s night a traveller” is named after Italo Calvino´s book of the same name. This served as inspiration and leit motiv to the Dérives where the photos were created. The result is a photo essay anchored in the Dérives, exploring how urban spaces influence our experience of both familiar and new surroundings.
The photographer uses the tool of dérive (drift) for her psychogeographical observation of cities, their communities, and their origin stories. Psychogeography explores the effect places have on us, the emotions they trigger – and how these might change. The dérive facilitates free exploration while remaining focused on a theme, a motto, or an experience that runs as a common thread through all the images that ensue, helping hold them together.
When: 09. until 31. Oktober 2020. Vernissage on 9.October, 19.00 Uhr
Where: Prenzlauer Studio Kollektiv, Winsstraße 42, 10405 Berlin
How: The photos are shown on the Gallery´s windows. Visitors can visit any time and enjoy the photos in the fresh air. Andrea will be there on specific days. More details about the exhibition and PhotoDérive at: https://www.photoderive.org
