How can a book page be translated into three-dimensional space? The group exhibition BOOK_SPACES presents book projects from diverse cultural backgrounds and focuses on the participatory and democratic potential of the medium. Using performative and installation practices, the artists translate the pages into museum and urban spaces, revealing the multifaceted perspectives through the interplay of photography, film, sound, text, drawing, and performance. The exhibition explores family history, personal identity and its perception within society, and questions stereotypical imagery and social role models.

Pedro Guimarães' (*1977) work Rato Tesoura Pistola combines drawings with photographs and can be seen as a collaborative family project between the artist and his two children. Sarai Meyron (*1995), in her audio installation No Words of Warmth / Keine wärmenden Worte in the museum garden , explores her own Jewish identity and examines the influence of the past and her own migration history on her lived present. Her own family history is also the starting point for the work of Lebohang Kganye (*1990) – in a kind of performative practice, she adopts the poses of her deceased mother in old family photographs at the very locations where they were taken. While Zuzana Pustaiová's (*1990) book project *One Day Every Day* critically and humorously examines social role models and stereotypes in our present day, Hien Hoang's (*1990) installation * She sang a song while I was dreaming*, developed specifically for the exhibition, uses Western perceptions of Asian culture as a starting point for questioning one's own identity . In his book *Tofu Knife* , Kohei Kawatani (*1992) explores questions of photographic image perception in the digital age, utilizing both the museum space and the adjacent public area with his installation. In this same public space in Braunschweig, Mads Holm's (*1990) project *HRTLND* examines the relationship between fictional and real urban design.

In a vacant space in the immediate vicinity of the museum, a selection of photo books by students from the universities of Hanover and Dortmund is also shown under the title FIRST PAGES .

FIRST PAGES

Photo books by students of the universities of Hanover and Dortmund

Hannah Almstrup, Arafat Bin Siraji, Kira Tanita Grenz, Nicole Heinsohn, Josh Kern, Katrin Kutter, Moritz Lehmann, Jana Mai, Mehdi Moradpour, Asli Özçelik, Chantal Seitz, Anastasia Shvachko, Benjamin Thieme and Daniel Vogl

Vacant property at Helmstedter Straße 170

WHAT PICTURE DO YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS CREATE OF THE WORLD?

A total of 14 photobooks by students from Hanover and Dortmund showcase their personal perspectives on our present. The thematic diversity is also reflected in the different approaches to the medium of the book – sometimes the photographs are interwoven with text in the form of diaries, while at other times the sequence of individual images speaks for itself. Many of the exhibited books are unique pieces with varying formats and forms; often, notes, historical images, or tactile elements are integrated into the narrative. The books offer deeply personal insights into other cultural spheres and everyday lives – and the exploration of origin and belonging often plays a central role.

The presentation was shown in a more extensive form under the title FIRST PAGES within the exhibition series COUNTER IMAGES (February 10–June 11, 2023) at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. It was created in collaboration with the universities of Hanover and Dortmund and featured works produced between 2018 and 2022 as part of national and international photobook classes led by Thekla Ehling, Frederic Lezmi, and Paul Spehr.

exhibition program 

Public guided tour | Every Sunday, 16 pm

Happy Thursday | Every first Thursday of the month
Free admission and extended opening hours (13-20 pm), public guided tour of the exhibition at 18 pm

Opening | Friday, July 7, 2023, 7 p.m.
To say in greeting:
Regine von Monkiewitsch, Chairwoman, Museum of Photography Braunschweig
Barbara Hofmann-Johnson, Director of the Museum of Photography Braunschweig
Franziska Habelt & Finn Schütt, curators of the exhibition

exhibition tour | July 8, 2023, 3 p.m.
with the artists Mads Holm, Sarai Meyron, Zuzana Pustaiová and the curators Franziska Habelt & Finn Schütt in English

ONE DAY EVERY DAY – Book Talk with Zuzana Pustaiová | June 08.07.2023nd, 16, 30:XNUMX p.m
in English

HRTLND – Performance Tour with Mads Holm | July 9, 2023, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
with the artist Mads Holm, starting at the Museum of Photography Braunschweig

She sang a song while I was dreaming – Performance by Hien Hoang | June 09.07.2023nd, 18, 00:XNUMX p.m
Performance by the artist Hien Hoang with the performers Moe Gotoda and Yi-Jou Chuang

Our background is in our foreground: Tour & Talk with friends | Tuesday, August 29, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
with the artists Sarai Meyron and Rita de Matos, as part of the Jewish Cultural Days
17:30 Braunschweig State Museum, Believe in me – Exhibition tour with Sarai Meyron and Rita de Matos
18:30 Museum of Photography, No warm words – Book Talk with the artist Sarai Meyron and the graphic designer Franziska Bauer