JUNGE MENSCHEN

JUNGE MENSCHEN Set 9 from the Collection of Fotomuseum Winterthur

Growing up is a time of self-searching. Who am I and who do I want to be? It is a time of trying to ground oneself in the world and build a relationship with one’s own persona. Each individual must personally undergo the experience of transition from a protected childhood into a social system of relationships and responsibility, finding one’s role in group dynamics, identifying and testing possibilities and boundaries. Artistic photography has repeatedly examined this phase of life, from at least two different perspectives. One is the viewpoint of actual experience – a young adult who shares the lives of the protagonists with whom he or she is involved (not only as a photographer), such as Larry Clark and Nan Goldin earlier, or Maya Rochat and Rico Scagliola/Michael Meier today. Then there is the adult perspective on the phenomena of youth, which takes a different form of expression due to a certain distance and life experience. Images of youth also represent a confrontation with one’s own story, with personal successes and defeats, whether as present experiences or reflections on the past.
The exhibition “Young People – Set 9 from the Collection of Fotomuseum Winterthur” explores these questions in life. Artistic positions from five decades show that growing up is still influenced by private as well as social expectations. Moments of transgression, of protest, and experiences with drugs and alcohol are reactions that can be as little ignored as the (sometimes) relentless quest for sexual encounters, or the ongoing search for established models of living, and for possible approaches to the future.

Accompanying the exhibition is the brochure “Young People – Set 9 from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur” as part of the series of publications on the collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur. It features an introductory essay by Terry Castle as well as short texts on all participating artists.
Mit Werken von Nobuyoshi Araki, David Armstrong, Nathan Beck, Sabrina Biro, Beni Bischof, Daniele Buetti, Larry Clark, JH Engström, Michel François, Ilse Frech, Julian Germain, Nan Goldin, Paul Graham, Roland Iselin, Ari Marcopoulos, Pietro Mattioli, Boris Mikhailov, Anne Morgenstern, Daido-Moriyama, Taiyo Onorato/Nico Krebs, Suzanne Opton, Helena Påls, Walter Pfeiffer, Pipilotti Rist, Maya Rochat, Viviane Sassen, Rico Scagliola/Michael Meier, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Alec Soth und Tobias Zielony.
Kurator: Thomas Seelig