ORI GERSTH & SIMON NORFOLK
ERZÄHL MIR VOM KRIEG
20.03. - 01.05.2005
"Erzähl mir vom Krieg" ("Tell me about the war“) is the first exhibition of "ZEPHYR", the new public space for photography and related media in Mannheim, which will dissolute the photogallery "Alte Feuerwache".
The first show, representing the work of two young British photographers, deals with the topic of war. The show starts exactly 59 years and 51 weeks after Mannheim has been liberated by the Allied forces and finally Second World War has ended in Mannheim. Although hidden, the scares of this war are still to be seen.
Ori Gersht’s and Simon Norfolk’s photographic explorations examine these silent visual relicts of war in a broader perspective. Gaps, ruins and injured brickwork left over by the disastrous deadly instruments indicate that after a war the world is still out of balance. They show devasted landscapes and people, who try to survive within.
War lasts shortly but its results stay visible for many years. Gersht’s and Norfolk’s photographs draw a bow from Poland to Bosnia, from Palestine and Israel to Iraq and Afghanistan. Both artists have a very specific way of approaching, but they manage to formulate their view on the phenomenon of war in a precise, demonstrative and irritatingly beautiful way.
Ori Gersht, born 1967 in Tel Aviv, had a solo show at the Tate Britain and the Tel Aviv Museum; his works are present in the collections of Tate Gallery and Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art. Simon Norfolk, born 1963 in Lagos, has been short listed for the Citibank Price, he gained numerous prices for his publications and pictures. His images on Afghanistan meanwhile are world famous. He is actually working on a series about refugee camps.
more about Simon Norfolk: www.simonnorfolk.com