In conjunction with our exhibition The Lives of Documents—Photography as Project, join us to learn how photography can act as a research tool to document, observe, and critique the mechanisms and transformations that shape our world.

These programs take the form of two series that extend the discussions initiated in the exhibition to develop new positions and perspectives on our built environment.

Extending the Conversation
The first series of public programs invites participating artists and photographers from the exhibition to continue the discussions curators Stefano Graziani and Bas Princen initiated during studio visits organized to research their project. Their work focuses on transformations of urban infrastructures and the impacts of technological and industrial development on built and natural environments. The speakers will reveal the research and creative processes behind their projects and how they play with the documentary nature of photography: by questioning conventions of display and dissemination, producing postcards or booklets for visitors, challenging the notion of authorship, and exploring the materiality and seriality of photography to better understand and reveal its subject matter.

5 October 6:30pm
Lara Almarcegui on the Lives of Wastelands
Artist’s talk

7 October 2pm
Let’s Talk About the Francon Quarry
With artist Lara Almarcegui, Atelier Barda architects Antonio di Bacco and Etienne Issa, architect and teacher Patrick Evans, and designer Chantal Shahin
Public discussion

2 November 6:30pm
Armin Linke on Global Infrastructures and the Anthropocene
Artist’s talk

25 January 6pm
Annette Kelm on Folds and Surfaces of History
Artist’s talk

14 March 6pm
Susanne Kriemann on the Lives of Nuclear Archives
Artist’s talk

Documenting Displacement
The second series of public programs, Documenting Displacement, is curated by Hester Keijser, CCA Curator of Photography and New Media. This series will explore the notion of displacement and its diverse meanings and effects in photographic and video works, either through the subjects documented or through the artists’ methodologies and processes. The artists invited for this series all live in North America, but develop work from a sense of displacement, by their cultural or geographic origin.

30 November 6:30pm
Documents of Displacement I: With artists Marisa Portolese, Jinyoung Kim, and Pedro Barbáchano
Presentation and discussion

3 December 3pm
Documents of Displacement II: Film Screenings by Farah Al Qasimi and David Hartt
Film screenings

7 December 6:30pm
Documents of Displacement III: Screening of Cherán (2021) and discussion with Victor Arroyo
Film screenings and discussion with the artist