© Christiane Peschek
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13 Kinder explores the enigmatic process of self-projection seen through the eyes of 13 Viennese orphaned children aged 4 to 10. For several months I worked with them on 13
© Christiane Peschek
potential futures that lack of referential past, on a process of imagination, self-reflection and representation. I was interested in the link between the memory and legacy of the past, the interpretation of the present and the possibility and desire for the future.
Each one of them was asked a simple question: How do you want to be when you can become whatever is in your mind? Their answers where represented only through drawings, made by them, breaking the restraints that textual language can offer to a kid’s description of the world.
Transforming these represented fantasies to staged photographical portraits, 13 Kinder becomes a game for children that offers a visual investigation of the representation processes and of the photographic medium itself.
Biography
I am basically using photography as a medium for presenting my research results on the visualization of imagination and absence. My aim is to ask for new and alternative access to photographic image production and their representation. For the work on “13 Kinder” my focus was, as in previous works, to show the “unseen”, to visualize invisible layers. For me, this body of work can be understood as a mirror of the imaginative and powerful potential of our future generation.
In 2015 my works will be shown in several international exhibitions such as Matienschön Buenos Aires, the Triennale of Photography Hamburg, PhotoIreland Dublin and the Encontros da Imagem in Braga.