Bøger af Okwui Enwezor

The Walther Collection is a private international art collection dedicated to collecting and exhibiting contemporary photography with special emphasis on the works of African and Asian artists. It is a dynamic collection, constantly growing and driven by four core activities: collecting, curating, exhibiting and publishing. Each activity is designed to present the works of the artists and to engage them in dialogue with the general public and the specialized field of contemporary art. The Walther Collection encompasses more than 700 works of widely known as well as emerging African and Asian artists, which makes it one of the most comprehensive collections of African photography worldwide. These extensive holdings are contextualized and complemented by historically significant contributions to the art of photography mainly from Germany and the United States, which expand the understanding, conception and history of the medium. The exhibitions and their curators at The Walther Collection will change once a year. Each year, based on a different curatorial emphasis, the collection will be examined and new constellations of the holdings and the new acquisitions will be presented. The Walther Collection will present in the inaugural exhibition a series of four projects in the nine galleries of its three buildings under the curatorial direction of Okwui Enwezor. It will integrate the work of three generations of African artists and photographers and a selection of the work of classical German photographers: Seydou Keïta (Mali), Malick Sidibé (Mali), J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere (Nigeria), Rotimi Fani-Kayode (Nigeria), Santu Mofokeng (South Africa), as well as August Sander and Bernd and Hilla Becher (Germany). The exhibition series will center on issues of portraiture, identity, body, sexuality and performance. In total 230 works of 31 artists from 13 nations, among them South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Benin, Cameroon and Senegal, are presented. This comprehensive catalogue contains full-page reproductions of all works on display. It includes contributions by Okwui Enwezor, Virginia Heckert, Kobena Mercer, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Gabriele Conrath-Scholl and Deborah Willis as well as a conversation between William Hartshorn and Artur Walther.

Over the course of his three-decade career, Thomas Ruff has taken up many approaches to photography in his investigation into the status of the image in contemporary culture.In Thomas Ruff, the artist presents new work that continues his ongoing probe into the history, processes, techniques, and technology of photography. One of the most influential photographers working today, Ruff has redefined photography’s conceptual possibilities, simultaneously capturing and challenging the essence of the medium as a means for visual experience. He has investigated various photographic genres, including portraiture, the nude, and landscape and architectural photography, using both analog and digital technologies, and culling imagery from scientific archives, print media, and the internet.   Presented here is a selection of Ruff’s most well-known works, as well as the newer Tripe/Ruff series, begun in 2018, which draws on negatives of India and Burma taken in the 1850s by an officer in the East India Company army. Also included is a conversation between Ruff and Okwui Enwezor, which took place at Haus der Kunst in Munich, in connection with the artist’s retrospective then on view. The conversation, published here for the first time, has been edited for this volume and examines Ruff’s artistic practice and inspiration, serving as an engaging and dynamic introduction to the artist. Published on the occasion of the artist’s solo exhibition at David Zwirner, Hong Kong, in 2019, Thomas Ruff is available in both English-only and bilingual English/traditional Chinese editions.

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