In partnership with Lumiar Cité:
Allan Sekula
The Dockers’ Museum
06.04 - 20.05.2012
La Criée, Rennes, France
Allan Sekula is a renowned photographer, theorist, photography historian and writer. Using colour photographs in conjunction with text, Allan Sekula’s work focuses on economic systems, a subject often considered incompatible with the field of art. Cultural critics frequently see the economy to be a problematic issue that is of little interest
for arts practitioners, although many artworks are under the unmistakable influence of market forces.
For Sekula, it is irrelevant that photography has finally been acknowledged as an artistic medium like any other, alongside painting or sculpture. He considers the modesty of the medium, and the possibility it offers to attain knowledge through keen observation, to be a more interesting characteristic.
Relying on its ability to describe aspects of economic systems within the framework of
the visual arts, through what is commonly called «documentary» practice, Sekula attempts to offer a clear alternative to the
kind of photography usually shown by the contemporary system of museum and galleries. According to the artist this system in essence prepares the work for an «antiquarian future», which condemns art to conform with the museum’s relics of the past.
In recent years, Sekula has worked on
long documentary projects inspired by contemporary political events. These projects have given rise to sequences and major series that often culminate in the publication of a book. In these publications, the photographs are contextualised by the artist’s texts - which are always present in his exhibitions - which emphasizes the fact that Sekula’s practice also encompasses writing, alongside the production of visual work.
Sekula calibrates each exhibition through a careful selection of photographs and objects specific to the context of the given place, thus «re-writing» his own narrative via the re-arrangement of work. By developing his exhibitions from venue to venue, they in effect connect cities and harbours, which evokes the production and flow of goods via complex network relationships of harbour cities, the subject of Sekula’s practice. La Criée in Rennes now presents the exhibition The Dockers’ Museum. Photographs from the series Ship of Fools - which were previously presented in Antwerp, São Paulo and Edinburgh - constitute part of the exhibition.
Their configuration in Rennes is altered through an emphasis on the artist’s collection of objects related to the world of dockers and seafarers, reflected in the exhibition title The Dockers’ Museum. The collected «objects of interest» are not to be understood as artworks, but they contextualize Sekula’s photography, while these in turn contextualize Sekula’s ongoing activity of collecting these items. Sekula finds his «objects of interest» at online auction houses, contrasting the mystical «speed of light» of the Internet with the slow movement of cargo, 90 per cent of which is moved by sea.
A series of portraits of the crew of the Global Mariner forms one of the core works at
La Criée. The International Transport Workers Federation adapted a cargo vessel in 1998
to host a mobile multi-media exhibition in its hold. It formed part of an 18-month campaign around the world against substandard shipping under flags of convenience, and the inherently abusive low wages paid to members of ships’ crews who have limited rights. Sekula’s participation in various stages of the journey resulted in a series of photographs in which the artist draws attention to the unknown protagonists of this predicament.
Through taking the «forgotten space» of the sea with its 100,000 ships and 1,500,000 workers as the subject for his work, Allan Sekula reflects on the effects of current neoliberal ideologies. His work questions their promises of a painless, endless flow of goods and capital with the emphasis on consumption and negating the work and working conditions behind it. It reveals the far-reaching impact of globalization on people’s lives.
Jürgen Bock
Maumaus
Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar, 148 - 3º C
1050-021 Lisboa, Portugal
Monday to Friday, 10h00 to 13h00,
14h30 to 19h00
Tel: + 351 21 352 11 55
maumaus@maumaus.org
Current:
Independent Study Programme
Call 2024
Until 03.09.2023
Upcoming:
Manthia Diawara
Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom
Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon
30.09.2023
19h00
Commissioned by Serpentine, MUBI and PCAI Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative, as part of Serpentine's Back to Earth project.
Upcoming:
PROBLEMATISING REALITY
Encounters between art and philosophy
Programme 1:
space, place and memory
Billy Woodberry, Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Auditorium 3
13.10.2023, 18h30
PROGRAMME 1:
SPACE, PLACE AND MEMORY
Billy Woodberry, Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Auditorium 3
13.10.2023, 18h30
Manthia Diawara
Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom
Sharjah Biennial 15
07.02. – 11.06.2023
Manthia Diawara
A Letter from Yene
Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto
14.03.2023
Current:
Seminar
Amanda Boetzkes
Realism Without Authority
01.04, 04.04.2022
10h–13h, 14h–17h
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Registration is free but limited to the number of seats available. Please send an email with a short CV to admin@maumaus.org by 24.03.2022. Confirmation of registration will be sent by email. The seminar will be in English.
Lumiar Cité
Rua Tomás del Negro, 8A
1750-105 Lisboa, Portugal
Wednesday to Sunday, 15h00 to 19h00
or by appointment.
Tel: + 351 21 755 15 70
lumiar.cite@maumaus.org
Loretta Fahrenholz
Circle Navel Nil
24.04. – 27.06.2021
24.06 | 18h00 Online conversation with Sabeth
Buchmann, Loretta Fahrenholz and Jürgen Bock
Current:
Anna Schachinger
Allover
08.10. – 11.12.2022
07.10 | 18h00 Circulating Salt, Ayami Awazuhara
08.10 | 16h00 Opening of the exhibition
Upcoming:
Alejandro Cesarco
Other Recent Examples
Lumiar Cité
14.10.2023 – 14.01.2024
Current:
Cosima von Bonin
Boy at Work
15.04. – 23.07.2023
15.04 | 17h00 Opening of the exhibition
20.07 | 19h00 Talk by Diedrich Diederichsen
Upcoming:
Alejandro Cesarco
Other Recent Examples
14.10.2023 – 14.01.2024
A co-production by Artium Museum
and Lumiar Cité
14.10 | 17h00 Talk with Miguel Wandschneider,
Alejandro Cesarco
and Santiago da Silva
Book launch
18h00 Opening of the exhibition
Current:
Artium Museum, Vitoria-Gasteiz
24.03. – 24.09.2023
Upcoming:
Lumiar Cité
14.10.2023 – 14.01.2024
Collaboration:
The Educational Web
Kunstverein in Hamburg
01.04. – 06.08.2023
Closed 24, 25, 31 December and 1 January
Arne Kaiser and Jürgen Bock
In cooperation with Lumiar Cité:
Tiffany Chung
Thu Thiêm: an archaeological
project for future remembrance
08.06. - 08.09.2019
Johann Jacobs Museum
In co-production with Lumiar Cité:
Alejandro Cesarco
Other Recent Examples
24.03. - 24.09.2023
Artium Museum
The Educational Web
31.03. - 06.08.2023
Kunstverein in Hamburg
Maumaus/Lumiar Cité is funded by República Portuguesa – Cultura/Direção-Geral das Artes. With the support of Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and Junta de Freguesia do Lumiar