Pablo Bartholomew
dal 8/1/2009 al 2/2/2009
Segnalato da
8/1/2009
Pablo Bartholomew
BodhiBerlin, Berlin
Eclectic Images
Curated by Jamila Adeli & Arsenal Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.
"We do not merely see images of the world, but the world in images, in such images
that we produce ourselves." )Hans Belting(
BodhiBerlin is pleased to present Eclectic Images, an exhibition of early black and
white photography by renowned Indian artist and documentary photographer Pablo
Bartholomew. Additionally, Eclectic Images will feature a series of lectures and
screenings, hosted by BodhiBerlin in collaboration with Arsenal, Institute for Film and
Video Art. The exhibition opens with a screening of Julian Rosefeldtʼs “Lonely
Planet”, 2006. During the 59th Berlinale, BodhiBerlin will continue this exhibition
platform with Arsenal at Forum expanded, an international programme for
experimental film, installation and video art.
The recipient of the World Press Photo Award in both 1975 and 1984, Pablo
Bartholomew's documentary photographs provide an intimate glimpse into
metropolitan India during the 1970's, a critical period that witnessed dramatic flux in
the country's social and cultural landscape. Through a uniquely personal archive of
self-portraits, images of friends, family and the artist's social milieu, Bartholomew
portrays an India that strongly contests the cliché stereotype of the “poor,
ornamented Other."
In this exhibition, Bartholomew's lens captures the romantic, wistful world of
his adolescence that of psychedelic, sexualised and rebellious youth subcultures,
and of his own presence within what he refers to as "the first free-thinking generation
after Independence." The prints on view are nostalgic visual notes from the artist's
diary, enacting personal dialogues and connecting both viewer and subject to a
universal, cross-generational ethos of perpetual transformation. By displaying these
works alongside film screenings and talks by renowned academics and
professionals, namely Indian film expert and filmmaker Dorothee Wenner,
theoretician Nicole Wolf, Professor Alexandra Schneider and the artists Philip
Scheffner & Merle Kröger )pong(, BodhiBerlin aims to provide a theoretical,
intellectual and discursive context for Indian art, presented in a non-Indian context.
The confluence of Bartholomew's pictures, independent films, guest lecturers and the
ensuing dialogues supported by this exhibition, testify to the vivid eclecticisms that
invariably occur when imagining India and its wealth of imagery.
Pablo Bartholomew is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships and
has been widely exhibited internationally. Notable exhibitions include Les
Rencontres D'Arles Photographie, France )2007(; Noorderlitch Photo Festival,
Netherland )2006 and 2007(; Asian Arts Museum, San Francisco )1997(; Out of India,
Queens Museum of Art, NY )1997(; and Public Places/Private Spaces, Newark Museum,
New Jersey )2007(, among others. His photographs have been published in the New
York Times, Newsweek, Time, National Geographic and Geo and he is in the
permanent collections of George Eastman House, Rochester, New York and The
International Center for Photography, New York, among others. The artist lives and
works in New Delhi. For more information, please contact the gallery.
Opening, January 9 2009 / 6-9pm
BodhiBerlin
Halle am Wasser, Invalidenstrasse 50-51 - Berlin