Katja Stuke Supernatural 
Opening: 7 January 2010, 7 p.m.
Exhibition: 8 – 30 January 2010

No plane can fly for ever
No one will always be a winner
No car can run for ever.
Peter Hein/Fehlfarben, Rhein in Flammen


We are pleased to present the exhibition Supernatural for the first time in Berlin, a series of portraits by Katja Stuke.

Concentration is the conscious focus of attention on a specific activity, the achievement of a goal reachable at short notice. Focusing means that whatever is currently being done or felt is given undiverted attention for a certain amount of time. Concentration calls for mental effort and lessens after a while.
The effect of this total concentration, the ability of athletes to forget thousands of spectators in that instant of concentration prior to their peak performance in the realm of sport is a fascinating theme.

The pictures of artistic athletes and high divers were taken during the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008). Some were photographed live from a television screen. Only the noticeable television raster reveals the origin of these images. Stuke chose the classic portrait format. The typical characteristics of television (channel identifiers, overlays, the television landscape format) are excluded. 
The singular Olympic Games idea, the particular competition situation directly before the decisive sporting performance, and the question of the identity and development of girls and women plays a key role in this photographic work. The recent portraits of high divers extends the series to include the notion of vulnerability and exposure. 

We would also like to extend an invitation to a discussion with artists Katja Stuke / Oliver Sieber and Claudia Stein (photography.now) on Thursday, 21 January 2010. The two Düsseldorf photographers Stuke and Sieber have been producing this photographic project in magazine form since 1999 under the title “Frau Böhm” and later “Die Böhm”. This was added to in time with an Internet exhibition space, cooperation with other artists, joint exhibitions and a photo blog. The exhibition series Antifoto takes place in 2010.
Three new publications of the Böhm|Kobayashi Publishing Project coincide with the exhibition/artist discussion: the Böhm/Kobayashi Encyclopedia on the joint work Einflüsse und Ideen (Influences and Ideas), Katja Stuke’s Supernatural and Oliver Sieber’s J_Subs. All three publications appear in a numbered edition of 150 issues. 

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In her book, “Könnte sein”, Stuke arranges a selection of these real moments next to scenes from films and video games. the combination of real and fictional screenshots blurs not only the boundaries between reality and fiction but also the distinction between photography and film. The screen-like structure of the binding takes the film-photography realtion further. The prominent bar code on the cover recalls the central theme of the 96-page book: categorisation and surveillance. The sometimes surprising, sometimes complementary arrangement of the approximately 80 colour photographs is accompanied by a collection of writings by Katja Stuke herself and by a text by German film director and author Christoph Hochhäusler.

See bookreviews in the current issue of PHOTONEWS and FOAM magazine and in the upcoming issue of CAMERA AUSTRIA.



KATJA STUKE filmt Menschen auf der Straße, oft von hinten und im Vorübereilen – völlig in Gedanken versunken rauschen sie an ihrem Sucher vorbei. Den Blicken der Portraitierten aber wohnt ein seltsamer Moment der Konzentration inne, als wären gerade sie sich dieser Möglichkeit des Begegnens, der Gelegenheit der städtischen Isolation zu entfliehen, vollauf bewusst. Zumeist sind es Frauen und aus ihren Blicken, Gesten und ihrer Haltung, die Katja Stuke minutiös ausgewählt hat, spricht ein städtisches Selbstbewusstsein, ein flüchtiger Augenblick des Stolzes auch.

In ihrem Buch „Könnte sein“ kombiniert sie diese realen Momente mit Szenen aus Filmen und Videospielen. Sowohl von ihrem eigenen als auch von dem fiktiven Material verwendet sie ausgewählte Screenshots. Dadurch verschwimmen die Grenzen von Fiktion und Wirklichkeit ebenso wie die Trennung von Fotografie und Film. Schon der Einband verweist durch seine leinwandartige Struktur auf Elemente des Films. Der ISBN-Strichcode – prominent auf dem Cover – bildet den Link zu Katalogisierung und Überwachung, zentrale Punkte des 96 Seiten starken Buches. Im Verlauf der ca. 80 Farbfotografien stößt man immer wieder auf Bildkombinationen, die zugleich überraschen und sich ergänzen. Ein umfangreicher Text von Christoph Hochhäusler und Textsammlungen von Katja Stuke unterstützen die Bilder, erweitern das Visuelle ohne erklärend sein zu wollen.

2009
Japanese Lesson WG/Malkasten & Berger Kirche, Düsseldorf
Hidden Places, Kaune Sudendorf Galerie, Köln [G]
What a wonderful project - enormous love from Clean Brothers, CASO, Osaka [G]
New York Artbookfair PS1, New York
The Independent Photobook Kassel [Präsentation]
Markt der Kleinverlage, Fotomuseum Winterthur




2008



Bespoke Gallery New York
Book Lounge, Salon des Amateurs, Düsseldorf
Beautiful World [G] O. Jobard, F. Jodice, O. Sieber, T. Partin, K. Stuke Kulturform Alte Post, Neuss & Städt. Galerie Waldkraiburg
On Produceability, nüans/Alti Aylik, Istanbul
Book Launch, ooo, Osaka



2007
Back From Dallas [G] Ute Behrend, Sibylle Fendt, David Klammer, Eva Leitolf, Frederic Lezmi, Marc Räder, Oliver Sieber, Katja Stuke, Wolfgang Zurborn, a.o. Galerie Lichtblick, Cologne


Back From Japan K. Stuke/O.Sieber Düsseldorf



Jeunesse Dorée [G] Düsseldorf


Contemporary German Photography [G] Ute Behrend, Sibylle Fendt, David Klammer, Eva Leitolf, Frederic Lezmi, Marc Räder, Oliver Sieber, Katja Stuke, Wolfgang Zurborn, a.o.; Texas USA


Voies Off [G] Festival Arles


Die photographische Sammlung @ Art Cologne