NEWS: REASONABLE AT PHOTOFESTIVAL LENZBURG (MAY 25 - JUNE 22 2024)

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos

May 25 - June 23 2024

Curated by Marco De Mutiis and Matteo Bittanti

address:
Dammweg 19
5600 Lenzburg
Switzerland

Opening hours:
Thu-Fri: 2-5 PM
Sat-Sun: 10 AM–5 PM

 

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.

read more

 

scheduled events

SATURDAY JUNE 22 2024

11:00 AM: It’s not a Game Over, it’s a Finissage

Saturday June 22 at 11.00 AM

Dammweg 19

4 & 5 Etage

5600 Lenzburg

Switzerland

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,

you can find the complete list here

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,

you can find the complete list here.

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM: Vernissage of the Festival at Stapferhaus

Please register in advance.

7:30 PM: Tour through the exhibition “Microverses” with Kathrin Linkersdorff and Daniel Blochwitz

9:00 PM - 11:00 PM: Kraft-Party at Kraftreaktor, Lenzburg

DJ set with Pablo Color

Tickets on Eventfrog: 15 CHF; Free with Vernissage registration or Festival Pass.

SEE MORE: The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos

EVENT: COLL.EO AT THE 2017 UCLA GAME FESTIVAL

We're delighted to announce that COLL.EO is one of the featured artists in the upcoming show RE/PLAY: REENACTMENT PRACTICES IN VIDEO GAMES, as part of the 2017 UCLA GAME FESTIVAL curated by Eddo Stern, Tyler Stefanich, and David O'Grady. The event takes place at the Hammer Museum on November 14, 2017.

We will be showing our 2017 GTA interventions Liberty City Crawl, starring an avatar of William Pope.L. RE/PLAY also features Pippin Barr (Ziv Schneider), Alan Butler (Ed Ruscha), Roc Herms (Ai Weiwei), Clint Enns (Chris Burden) and Angela Washko (Chantal Akerman).

Click here for additional information.