PAST EXHIBITION

Laura Bielau: Color Lab Club

September 8, 2008—September 27, 2008

While glancing through her photohistoric Wunderkammer, Laura Bielau developed COLOR LAB CLUB. It is a field of work which enables her to arrange, group, add, overlap, associate, and to join objects. Despite numerous photographic truths to be found in the series, Bielau always discovers fictitious points that string together. The starting point of this series involved questions such as which particular manifestation of visibility photography adds to its objects, what kind of photographic place is my laboratory, and – had Benjamin and Barthes been in the photographic laboratory – what ideas they could have drawn from it.

'Allegedly, the first photographic image that could be fixed and has been conserved was produced in the small French town of Saint Loup de Varnennes, close to Chalôn sur Saône, not far from Lyon, in 1826. A spacious summer residence is situated between the street and the express train tracks. Looking into the grounds from over the wall, one can see a dilapidated kennel, only used during the summer; during the winter, the entire estate remains closed. Only very little can be seen through the aperture of the roof Joseph Nicéphore Niepce chose for his lens. Across the street, a restaurant serves its guests exquisite meals; at the end of the street, there is a loop for traffic to turn around. In Saint Loup de Varnennes, colossal monuments evoke memories of the early days of photography. I am now sitting in the restaurant enjoying an appetizer – what if Daguerre, Baryard, and Talbot, or even Maddox and Kobell entered.'

Laura Bielau, born in Halle/Saale, Germany, 1981, lives and works in Leipzig. 1997-1999 Education as designing assistant, graphics/design. 1999-2002 Education as photographer, Punctum, Leipzig. Since 2002 Studies at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig. 2004 Studied at the University of Art and Design, Helsinki. 2005-2008 Studied photography with Prof. Timm Rautert. Solo exhibitions: 2005/2006 ‘Kisahalli‘, Galerie Emmanuel Post, Leipzig; 2007 Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig; Goethe Institute Helsinki, Finland; Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki, Finland. Awards: 2002 & 2004 Prize winner of the German Youth Photo Prize; 2005 Acknowledgement Marta Hoepffner Prize for Photography; 2007 Prize winner of the 1st International Photography Festival Leipzig, F/Stop. Laura Bielau has been awarded this year’s Marion Ermer Prize for young artists from east Germany.

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