Backlight’23 Cruel Radiance
What kind of witnessing power photography possesses in a world where human-initiated crises and conflicts have long exceeded human scale? What type of visual agencies can be recognised in the world initiated by human intervention but then exceeding it? How does nature and the environment register various types of violence? Can contemporary photography touch something that is photographically invisible?
Backlight 2023 Cruel Radiance focuses on silent and alternative witnessing: different elements from radioactivity to air pollution, from cold to minerals, operate as visual agencies. In the artworks included in the festival exhibitions, temporally different processes from slow changes in climate conditions to sudden geopolitical crises surface. Photographic artworks and moving image pieces approach difficult violent thematics focusing on singular examples but simultaneously discussing larger issues. In addition, Backlight 2023 Cruel Radiance functions as a space to reconfigure image-reality relationships, and asks how photography can be exposed to alternative witnessing strategies.
Venues
3.6.–31.7. Photographic Centre Nykyaika, Kauppakatu 14, Tampere
3.6.–2.7. Gallery Koppelo, Kauppakatu 14, Tampere
3.6.–2.7. Gallery Saskia, Pirkankatu 6, Tampere
17.6.–15.10. Tampere Art Museum, Puutarhakatu 34, Tampere
Backlight’23 artists
Fiona Amundsen and Kanariya Eishi (New Zealand)
Solmaz Daryani (Iran/UK)
Veli Granö (Finland)
HNV Collective: Felicia Honkasalo, Akuliina Niemi, Sinna Virtanen (Finland)
Susanne Kriemann (Germany)
Noelle Mason (USA)
Ali Akbar Mehta (Finland)
Anastasia Mityakova (Switzerland)
Susan Schuppli (UK)
Anais Tondeur (France)
Toshio Fukada (Japan)
Eiichi Matsomoto (Japan)