Fotograf Magazine

Today the strict combining of artistic expression in the public space with socially or institutionally critical stances (opinions) comes off as cliché. There are certainly a number of photographers or visual artists, who use the public space in their work as a place where they can better formulate their statement and point out problem areas in the functioning of societal and institutional mechanisms. This is also documented by the selection, mainly of foreign artists, in this issue of Fotograf magazine. In my opinion, a many of these artists show their work in the public space because they consider it natural to present their works in a milieu to which they have immediate contact; one that is their source of inspiration. They perceive interaction with the public space rather as a necessity; whether it be an attempt to more easily find their bearings in it or to define themselves within it, to understand its mechanisms, to explore it, and to eventually use it to their advantage. They do not perceive questions tied to the function and functionality of galleries as places defined for the presentation of art as priority within their work. So placing the generally-accepted exhibition spaces of galleries of various types in juxtaposed positions to spaces outside them is not therefore fully relevant. The works of a whole range of artists demonstrate that the imagined boundary between the two is much more penetrable than it would seem at first glance.