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Conceptual background:
The non-profit organisation Kulturverein Bild und Kunst eV Trier is proud to announce that the first edition of the fototagetrier, the Trier Photo Days, will be held in 2010. The festival, which was conceived as a triennial event, will invest various museums and exhibition spaces in the city of Trier. Entitled “LEBEN elementar”, the first edition intends to survey a wide range of contemporary artistic practices based on photography or video and dealing with notions of contemporaneousness and existentiality.
The concept of the exhibition follows the observation that the gaps in our seemingly banal everyday – a seamless succession of events from birth and growing up to ageing and dying, interspersed with experiences of love and loss, joy and sadness, happiness and dismay, poverty and wealth, work and play… – provide compelling spaces for a philosophical reflection based on contemporary imagery. Contrasting with the current hype in art, “LEBEN elementar” intends to act as a sanctuary in which the world is given a chance to reflect on itself. The artistic proposals in this exhibition put the accent on contemplation, exploring the essence of the material world in order to reveal new aspects of our mortal existence. The choice of works focuses on photographs and videos, which rather than masking reality embrace the full extent of expectations and emotions by adopting a critical attitude that could be termed obstinate in the best sense of the word. Visitors will thus be given the opportunity to discover new work and rediscover historic pieces whose timeliness has not faded.
The list of participants includes both well-known and emerging artists from two generations, half of which are women artists.

Main dates:
Opening on 12 November 2010
Stadtmuseum Simeonstift, 6 pm
Bischöfliches Dom- und Diözesanmuseum, 7.30 pm
Viehmarktthermen, 8.30 pm

Artists’ talks on 13 November 2010
Stadtmuseum Simeonstift, 2 pm, introduction and presentation by Christoph Tannert
Bischöfliches Dom- und Diözesanmuseum, 4 pm, introduction and presentation by Manfred Zoller
Viehmarktthermen, 6 pm, introduction and presentation by Bill Kouwenhoven

Website
www.fototagetrier.de

Organiser:
Kulturverein Bild und Kunst e.V. Trier, President: Dr. med. Johannes Henke
Patrons: Doris Ahnen,?Minister for Education, Science, Youth and Culture of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate

Sponsors and partners:
Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Kultur?
Clearstream International S.A.
Karin Abt-Straubinger-Stiftung
Sparkasse Trier


Curator:
Christoph Tannert, art historian, curator and critic, born 1955 in Leipzig, lives and works in Berlin where he has been the Managing Director of Künstlerhaus Bethanien GmbH (www.bethanien.de) since 2000.