The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos is an official exhibition of the Lenzburg Fotofestival in Lenzburg, Switzerland, and will be accessible from May 25 to June 23, 2024.
The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos interrogates the ontological boundaries between physical and virtual spaces through an examination of photographic practices within the context of Rockstar North’s record-breaking 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V. Situating Los Santos as a simulacrum of Los Angeles — the epicenter of global image production —, the exhibition explores the emergence of this fictional locale as a site of artistic experimentation and critical inquiry.
Curated by Marco De Mutiis, Digital Curator at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, and Matteo Bittanti, Associate Professor in Media Studies at IULM University in Milan, the exhibition explores the influence of video games — encompassing their aesthetics, logics, and tools — on photography, through the works by artists working at the intersection of post-photography, video games and art, including 2girls1comp, Raphael Brunk, Alan Butler, Mattia Dagani Rio, Elizabeth Desintaputri, Claire Hentschker, COLL.EO, and Georgie Roxby Smith.
Through meticulous in-game capture techniques and cunning manipulations of code, this cadre of international artists rupture the veneer of mimetic realism that shrouds Los Santos, opening fissures wherein the underlying algorithms and tacit ideological assumptions underpinning these contested spaces are hijacked. At once playful and critical, the featured projects — several of which have never been presented before — challenge the stability of categories such as the virtual, the real, and the hyperreal within an increasingly gamified culture.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an online resource and a database detailing significant post-photographic interventions within Grand Theft Auto V and, later on, a “how-to-photograph-the-virtual” critical guide.
Join Marco De Mutiis and Matteo Bittanti on Saturday, June 22 at 11 AM to celebrate the conclusion of The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos exhibition at Photofestival Lenzburg. But don’t mistake this for another run-of-the-mill, self-congratulatory gathering fueled by endless prosecco. The curators will unveil a groundbreaking platform dedicated to in-game photography, ensuring the exhibition lives on indefinitely.
Like PFAs and other forever chemicals, we’re here to stay.
SUNDAY MAY 26 2024
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM: Guided tours with authors and curators,
11:00 AM: Prosecco Conversation at Burghaldenhaus Lenzburg
Grand Theft Photo: Photography in Digital Spaces – a dialogue with Marco de Mutiis, Digital Curator for Photography at Fotomuseum Winterthur.
In cooperation with KulturKommission Lenzburg. Entrance fee required, free with festival pass, accompanied by sound metamorphoses with cello and electric guitar by Clara Dietzte and David Joffrey.
SATURDAY MAY 25 2024
From 10:00 AM: Opening of the exhibitions in Lenzburg and Aarau
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM: Guided tours with authors and curators,
