Exhibition: Viviane Sassen – Stanze

Opening: 25.10.2022, 7pm
Exhibition: 26.10. – 10.12.2022

Foto Forum Bolzano presents Stanze by Viviane Sassen, an exhibition bringing together images from –  Flamboya, Parasomnia, Pikin Slee, Umbra and Of Mud and Lotus.

Works from different chapters in the artist’s oeuvre intertwine in configurations prompted by affinity of shapes, colours and oneiric atmospheres; the gallery walls are each a self-contained visual poem, a stanza in which the images are words and sequences have their own distinct rhythm. 

Sassen’s photographs constantly disrupt our usual perceptions because some are carefully constructed while others are incidental scenes, leaving us unsure which are her imaginary fictions and which scenes from life. The ambiguity between realism and abstraction, characteristic of her work, emerges in the play of juxtapositions and associations, bringing to the fore the surrealist’s influences in her practice, in a conversation on transformations  and disguise.

In Sassen’s words:

“I love the fluidity of what photography can be. I’m intrigued by how you can take an image out of its original context and make it into something else, and then bring it somewhere else again. The meaning of the image can change if you put it in a different context. I’ve often referred to my images as words or sentences and you can make different stories or poems with them.”