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Texte zur zeitgenössischen Fotografie und digitalen Bildkunst
von Sebastian Hau
google english translation
Schlagworte: Joan Fontcuberta, Niels Stomps, Sergey Bratkov, Christoph Büchel, Luca Nimcova, Onaka Koji, Oliver Sieber, Kiyoshi Suzuki, Stephen Gill
Joan Fontcuberta: Deconstructing Osama
The truth about the case of Manbaa Mokfhi, Actar 2008 First of all, this is a surprising and quite beautiful book. Bound in leather, like a private journal or official document, with mostly arabic text and all images set against a mosaic relief, spanish publisher Actar has produced quite an object. The book, as do all of Fontcuberta’s aims at nothing less than the truth. In this case not about art or science but the ongoings around the Al Queda myth, which is still so strongly influencing politics today. Fontcuberta is one of the most innovative artists and photographers in Europe today, and in his recent political work his sharp anger and irony let us feel the righteousness of an artist who grew up during the Franco dictatorship. All of the images in this book, however manipulated they are, work against the currents of the dominating visual media culture we live in. A fictious character (who is no more convincing than the characters the media and governments present us as terrorists) played by Fontcuberta is set in the sort of images we see in the news. The simple recipe: arabic-looking men conspiring, waving guns, lecturing, praying. The book asks: who infiltrates who here? Which images and stories can we trust? And as Fontcuberta is not out to look for friends, his jokes ridicule both cultures, the islamic as much as our own. A discussion in French, Spanish and English between two Al-Azur journalists provides the back-drop of information, conspiracy, illusion and truth. In the way this book is produced against everything we want to believe, and showing us the failures in the way we perceive the world, it surely is one of the most important publications in this season.
There are a lot of images from the book on the photobookguide www.photobookguide.com/review/joan-fontcuberta/deconstructing-osama/ and a very interesting review by Jeffrey Ladd
13.12.2008
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google english translation
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