Silvester. Graz – Vinzidorf, 2019. From the series WE – THE REST OF US. 2019
The project is based on a text from the Lettre International 02/2012:
„I LIKE IT BEST WHEN EVERYONE
IS ALLOCATED TO THE RIGHT PLACE,
THE MAD PEOPLE IN THE MAD HOUSE,
THE MURDERERS IN THE JAIL,
AND WE – THE REST OF US AT HOME,
SO THAT WE CAN GAZE AT IT ALL
FROM OUR ARMCHAIRS
OVER A CUP OF COFFEE.
BELTEMPO
Inspired by Beltempo’s text I initiated several visits to housing communities,
searching for the relationship between social connectivity and rooms for inhabitation.
The US that defines communities is a kind of social sculpture which
one belongs to, but which at the same time looks out towards the OTHER.
We always live both instances: the subject as well as the object. We are at
once US and the OTHERS.
Lumpi, Graz – Vinzidorf, 2019. From the series WE – THE REST OF US 2019
I photograph people who – through spatial circumstances – are externally
perceived as a group. Here I meet different communities of similar fate selforganised
and temporary communities. WE – THE REST OF US is a project
about perception and formation of communities within our society, about the
development of a WE sentiment, about social cohesion as well as exclusion,
loneliness, spatial closeness, isolation, visibility and representation. At every
specific location I always ask the residents to open their front doors and to
position themselves in their front rooms.
Precious, Graz – shelter for women. From the series WE – THE REST OF US 2019
I examine the relationship between
the inside view on different communities, their spatial condition and solidarity.
Both: the reflection on what we see and the act of looking as a process
shaped by culture plays an important role in my work. The following questions
emerge: At what point does one develop a sense of community based on
spatial proximity? Does this sense of belonging become heightened by an
external threat? What are the elements required for a community to establish
a sense of „us“?
I document everyday situations in my pictures. My pictures are an attempt to
stage a scene as not staged. The frame acts as a border that leads into the
worlds of others which, however can not be crossed.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Kati Bruder
Austria
https://www.instagram.com/kati_bruder/?hl=de
Kati Bruder (1978, Graz) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (graduated in 2015), where Peter Kodera taught her how to use a camera. Since 2003 she has been working as a freelance photographer with a focus on portraits. In her photo series Kati Bruder explores the ambiguity of visibility, searching for answers to the following questions: how do our social status and gender affect our visual perception? What are we allowed to see by whom? What role is played by the symbolic significance of the gaze and what poses do we strike as soon as a camera is pointed at us?
Kati Bruder lives in Vienna and works internationally. Among other accolades, she was awarded the Austrian State Scholarship for Artistic Photography in 2017 and in 2015 the Advancement of Photography Prize by the City of Graz, the Audience Award at the Wiesbadner Fototage, and the commendation of the ‘architekturbild’ European Architectural Photography Prize. Exhibitions at home and abroad include: MAK – Museum of Appl