Untitled (Evidence). From Alternative Knowledge to Counter Memories

How do we inhabit an image? How can alternative knowledge and counter-memories be generated through the displacement, misplacement or condensation of collected imagery? The works in the exhibition explore the recreation and transposition of narrative structures, applied to systems of representation, image production and dissemination. The separation of roles between authors, actors, protagonists and observers in the images' treatment, or manipulation, leave them as unanswered enigmas in which meaning is to be reinvented through the viewer's active participation.

Collection, displacement, detachment: here is the movement of the archives of images in the works, mostly installations, created for this project at David Roberts Art Foundation.

It is through an evolving archive of images that Özlem Altin (b. 1977, Germany) induces concepts concerned with disappearance, shadow, and memory. Her extensive research has amassed a large collection of images she keeps re-using and reconfiguring in site-specific installation and publications that are questioning the structures of image's presentation.

Neil Beloufa (b. 1985, France) demonstrates a persisting interest in dichotomies; reality and fiction, cause and effect, presence and absence, all of which he communicates through mediums ranging from sculpture, video, installation and conceptual photography. His video Untitled (2010) charts the story of an Algerian family whose house was forcefully occupied by terrorists. Yet, truth is questioned here through the family's attempts to imagine how the terrorists may have acted in their home, thus replacing truth with fantasy in order to create documentary.

Elad Lassry (b. 1977, Israel) defines his work as "consumed with pictures." Pulling images from magazines and film archives Lassry recontextualises this imagery in a manner that evokes traditions of story building and of narratives. "I'm fascinated by the collapse of histories and the confusion that results when there is something just slightly wrong in a photograph".

Through his practice Rinus van de Velde (b. 1983, Belgium) explores the narratives of collective myth and history. His imagery is first generated by a large archive of collected photographs, before he transforms the image into large-scale black graphite drawings. This transformation from 'realistic' image to 'allegoric' image is accompanied by a narrative text often created in collaboration with a writer.

The exhibition is supported by Institut Français, the Embassy of Israel and the Flemish Authorities.

Untitled (Evidence)
From Alternative Knowledge to
Counter Memories
Ort: David Roberts Art Foundation, London
Kurator: Vincent Honoré

Künstler: Özlem Altin, Neil Beloufa, Elad Lassry, Rinus Van de Velde