Mediations

“The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.” — Susan Meiselas

Susan Meiselas (1948, Baltimore, USA), a member of Magnum Photos since 1976, became known for her work in the conflict zones of Central America (1978–1983), and in particular for her powerful photographs of the Nicaraguan revolution. Endlessly exploring and developing narratives, she involves her subjects in her works, often working over long time spans and covering a wide range of subjects and countries, from war to human rights issues and cultural identity to the sex industry. This exhibition, entitled Mediations after an eponymous work published by Damiani in 2018, is the most comprehensive retrospective ever held in Europe, bringing together a selection of works from the 1970s to the present day. Mediations (1978–1982) is based on Meiselas’s initial experience during the popular insurrection in Nicaragua. The selection process of her images for the publication Nicaragua: June 1978–July 1979 and the use of the same photographs by the mass media left her with many questions about how images are used in different contexts. Towards the end of the 1990s, Meiselas started to use archival material that she collected, published and exhibited as part of multimedia installations, thereby giving a voice to individuals and communities subject to violence and oppression.

Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain: October 11, 2017 – January 14, 2018
Jeu de Paume, Paris, France: February 6 – May 20, 2018
SFMOMA, San Francisco, United States: July 21 - October 21, 2018
Instituto Moreira Salles, Sao Paulo, Brazil: October 15, 2019 - February 3, 2020
Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna, Austria: Sept 14 2021 -  Feb 13, 2022
C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany: April 29 – Sep 09, 2022
Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Germany: October 18, 2022 - January 29, 2023
FOMU - Foto Museum Antwerp, Belgium: Currently on view through June 04, 2023


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(All images © Jeu de Paume, photo Raphaël Chipault, © Fundació Antoni Tàpies, photo Roberto Ruiz, © SFMOMA, photo Katherine Du Tiel, © Instituto Moreira Salles, photo Renato Parada)