Peter Lindbergh: The Unknown
—World-renowned German photographer makes his Editorial contact: China debut with images of beauty and mystery
Sybella Chow +86 10 5780 0253 April 1, 2011. Beijing. +86 186 1115 7030 Acclaimed photographer Peter Lindbergh is best known for his iconic [email protected] black and white images of natural beauties that graced the pages of fashion magazines and launched the 1990s “supermodel phenomenon,”
Exhibition dates: but it is the inherent tension and cinematic suspense of his work that April 1, 2011 - May 22, 2011 moves it into the realm of art, and propels the photographer into a new chapter of his life and career.
The Unknown, Lindbergh’s first solo exhibition in China, features still images and video work that give us a new and previously unknown perspective on the work of this extraordinary photographer.
“An Exhibition Worthy of the Silver Screen…”
“The Unknown is not a Lindbergh retrospective,” says UCCA Director
Jérôme Sans, “but a body of work specifically assembled to mark his
first experience with China. [With] silver prints and film posters plastered from floor to ceiling, images that burst from the walls, invade our space and inhabit our consciousness, The Unknown is a gigantic
remix without order or chronology, a visual journey through decades of images, a story sure to be continued in future episodes, through other unknown territories.”
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The Unknown represents a step beyond Lindbergh’s recent cinematic series Invasion, in that it takes various and unsettling episodes, characters and stories and remixes them. The result is rather like stumbling onto a movie set midway through production: clearly, this is a storyboard-in-progress, a mysterious narrative that we, the viewers, must piece together for ourselves.
The experience begins with a large-scale video installation in the Nave. Playing over the walls and curtains are scenes of a crowd of people surrounded by bright lights and enveloped in mist. They seem agitated, but their movements are slow, like a stylized dance. The footage was shot by Lindbergh himself, from behind the set of his photo shoot for the Invasion series. The final photos from that series are on display in vivid color in the UCCA Middle Room, plastered on the walls from floor to ceiling like a jumbled storyboard, or film stills from a movie in progress…
Peter Lindbergh says he is excited about The Unknown “because we’re taking something I’ve worked on for a year or two, remixing it, putting it into a new context, and injecting a great new energy into the work. That’s the real beauty of the unknown: you don’t know how it ends.”
About Peter Lindbergh
Peter Lindbergh (b. 1944, Lissa, Germany) is one of the most iconic and influential international photographers working today. His stunning black and white images of Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz and other beauties in the pages of Vogue and Stern were credited with launching the 1990s “supermodel phenomenon” and creating a renewed appreciation for the natural beauty and power of women.
Lindbergh’s aesthetic and artistic influences are wide-ranging and eclectic. In his photography and video work, he draws inspiration from sources as varied as the Free Dance movement of the 1920s and 1930s, the cinema of Fritz Lang and Wim Wenders, 1950s Hollywood glamour and the alien-invasion motifs of B-movies and science fiction.
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In 1992, Lindbergh produced his first documentary film, and has since continued to create technically exquisite video work for a variety of patrons, clients and institutions. He has presented major solo exhibitions in Berlin, Moscow, New York and Milan, while also shooting spreads for publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie-Claire, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Allure and Rolling Stone. His work has led ad campaigns for Giorgio Armani, Jil Sander, PRADA, Donna Karan New York and Calvin Klein.
Peter Lindbergh currently divides his time between his studios in Paris, New York and Arles.
Catalogue at UCCASTORE Peter Lindbergh's book The Unknown: The Chinese Episode published by Schirmer/Mosel on the occasion of his UCCA exhibition, combines an exclusive artist interview conducted by UCCA director Jé rô me Sans with 84 full-color plates selected from the exhibition. The Unknown: The Chinese Episode will be available for purchase in the UCCASTORE.
Related Events at UCCA Artists' Talk: The Unknown – A Conversation with Peter Lindbergh Guests: Peter Lindbergh, Angelica Cheung (Editorial Director, Vogue China), Jé rô me Sans Date: April 2, 2011, 2:00-3:30 pm / UCCA Auditorium Language: English with Chinese translation
UCCA Art Cinema: Films by Peter Lindbergh April 3 & 10 / 6:30 pm, 82 min Pina Bausch: The Window Washer (no dialogue) Models, The Film (in EN with CN subtitles)
About UCCA The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is a non-profit, comprehensive art center founded by collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens in November 2007. UCCA presents exhibitions of established and emerging artists and develops a trusted platform to share knowledge through education and research.
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