TIFF OPEN 2020: SHIFTERS BY MAGDA BOGDAŃSKA
SHIFTERS is the latest project of the photographer and philosopher Marta Bogdańska. Being interested in espionage and its heritage, she began to collect the articles describing the cases of (spying animals) that were mentioned in the media. Her collection includes newspaper cuttings that state about the suspicious squirrels, pigeons accused of taking photographs and nuclear lizards. All animals faced serious accusations of espionage, moreover, they were treated in the same way as human agents.
Inspired by the research of one of the most important contemporary scholars of animal studies - French historian Eric Baratay, the artist takes up the challenge of telling the stories from the animals’ perspective - as opposed to describing their lives in the context of humans. By calling animal agents, she gives them agentship, and emphasizes, that they have their features - including character traits.
The most important part of this project is an extensive 750-page art book consisting of hundreds of archival photos combined with the artist's research, divided into 14 chapters - each with a different visual narrative. By using this scale, the author makes the viewers and the readers feel (literally and figuratively) the importance of the proposed problem. Through an avalanche of (often cruel) images, she forces the viewer to face the history of agent animals, to look them straight into their eyes.
Curator: Agata Połeć
2-26.09.2020
organiser: TIFF Festival / TIFF Center
tiff.wroc.pl
