The exhibition “This Is Me, This Is You” provides a first-time ever look at this collection of internationally significant photographs, that has grown over four decades. Since the beginning of her passion for collecting in the late 1980s, Eva Felten has focused in particular on the depiction of people—a focus that she has consistently continued in recent years, and which makes the collection unique in this form. What unites the photographs is a sensitive view of the individual, of different ways of life, political attitudes, and inner conflicts, revealing a diverse panorama of images in the overall show.
In seven thematic chapters and a selection of around 140 works from the collection, the exhibition presents touching portraits, well-known works of street photography and socially critical photography, as well as conceptual works and important positions of Appropriation Art. The show deals with the complex visual relationships that are inscribed in photography and, above all, in the photographic representation of people. Our personal view significantly shapes our perception, interpretation and contextualization of images. Accordingly, it is not only about the physical point of view and the visual perspective at the moment the photograph was taken, but also the social and political position of the photographers themselves. The encounter with the photographs in the exhibition thus means both an encounter with the people depicted, as well as with the creators of these images.
The title of the presentation is taken from the series “This Is Me, This Is You” (1997–2000) by American artist Roni Horn (*1955). It is a key work that deals with questions about the transience of identity as well as with the presence of photographers within their works.
