Kader Attia / Felix Gmelin / Anna Jermolaewa / Paolo Woods / Tobias Zielony

“I was overcome with an 'ontological' desire: I wanted to learn at all costs what Photography was 'in itself' …“
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida

Punctum is an exhibition about the nature of photography today. Consisting of over fifty photographs chosen by artists, curators and writers, and including a series of lectures and a publication, Punctum takes its cue from the term “punctum” coined by Roland Barthes in his final book, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Used by Barthes as a linguistic device to “define” photography, “punctum” refers to a striking detail in the photograph that captivates or “wounds” the viewer, and completes the photograph as an object of reflection. The term has been referenced and bandied about casually since the publication of this seminal book, and employed by many authors and students on the subject of photography ever since. It has also often been misused, misrepresented – and even rejected as romantic, and today, as out-dated. The book was itself bound up with the recent death of the author’s mother, and thus became a personal soliloquy in one sense, sometimes smothering the philosophical ruminations with mournful prose, while asserting that “if photography is to be discussed on a serious level, it must be described in relation to death”.

This exhibition takes the concept and term of “punctum” as a starting point for invited participants to select photographs which for each of them are emblematic of “punctum”, given today’s context for photography and aesthetics. Accompanying each chosen photograph is a short text to complement and elucidate their decision. The backdrop to this project is the ongoing, ontological problem of photography, especially now after its digitisation and further universalisation. Photography has always been problematic, as a so-called indexical form, as a replacer of memory, as a manipulated device, as an instrument of surveillance, control and militarism, and as an art form. With the evolution  of photography into the digital age, these problematics have arguably multiplied. Author Geoff Dyer, for example, argues that digital photography “seems devoid of any qualities of past time”, that it itself no longer holds the qualities that Barthes would have ascribed to it. Today, we might ask, what is its ontological status?
To accompany the exhibition there will be a lecture series by artists and theorists on topical subjects of photography, as well as a publication co-produced with Fotohof edition. Lastly, a collaborative public response to Punctum will be mounted during the exhibition at the Salzburger Kunstverein.

Introduction: Séamus Kealy, curator and director, Salzburg Kunstverein

Participants/Artists & Photographers:
Hildegund Amanshauser (AT) – Ines Doujak (AT)
Kader Attia (F) – Kader Attia 
Geoffrey Batchen (NZ) – Alison Rossiter (USA)
Sabine Bitter/Helmut Weber (AT) – Sabine Bitter/Helmut Weber
Marc De Blieck (BE) – Albrecht Meydenbauer (DE)
Iñaki Bonillas (MX) – Iñaki Bonillas 
Adam Budak (PL) – unknown
Duncan Campbell (IE) – Willie Doherty (IE)
Philippe van Cauteren (BE) – unknown
Vaari Claffey (IE) – Paul Allen (USA)
Moyra Davey (CA) – Moyra Davey
Geoff Dyer (GB) – Oscar de Marcos (E)
Antje Ehmann (DE) – Antje Ehmann
Silvia Eiblmayr (AT) – Francesca Woodman (USA)
Sabine Folie (AT) – Klaus Scherübel (AT)
Maria Fusco (GB) – unknown
Gauri Gill (IND) – Gauri Gill
Felix Gmelin (DE/SE) – Felix Gmelin
Barbad Golshiri (IR) – Barbad Golshiri
Boris Groys (RUS) – Natalia Nikitin (RUS)
Eva Grubinger (AT) – Ed van der Elsken (NL)
Karin Hanssen (BE) – unknown
Martin Herbert (GB) – August Sander (DE)
Matthias Herrmann (AT) – Matthias Herrmann
Antonia Hirsch (DE) – unknown
Martin Hochleitner (AT) – Rainer Iglar (AT)
Ruth Horak (AT) – Tatiana Lecomte (F)
Geoffrey James (CA) – Geoffrey James
Anna Jermolaewa (RUS/AT) – Anna Jermolaewa
Simone Kappeler (CH) – Simone Kappeler
Eva Kotátková (CS) – Eva Kotátková
Suzanne Lafont (F) – Suzanne Lafont
Wilfried Lentz (NL) – Carleton Watkins (USA)
Declan Long (IE) – Tom Wood (IE)
Ken Lum (CA) – Ken Lum
Anja Manfredi (AT) – Anja Manfredi
Francis McKee (IE) – Pablo Guardiola (PR)
Rabih Mroué (RL) – unknown
Doina Popescu (CA) – Spring Hurlbut (CA)
Barbara Propst (DE) – Andreas Wutz (DE) 
Meggy Rustamova (GE) – unknown
Mark Sealy (GB) – Robert Lebeck (DE)
Corin Sworn (GB) – unknown
Friedrich Tietjen (DE) – unknown
Walker & Walker (IE) – Walker & Walker
Scott Watson (CA) / Carlo Gentile (IT)
Peter Weibel (AT) – Hiroshi Sugimoto (J)
Louwrien Wijers (NL) – Cathrien van Ommen (NL)
Paolo Woods (NL/CA) – Paolo Woods

Tobias Zielony (DE) – Seiichi Furuya (J)

www.salzburger-kunstverein.at