SOMEONE HAS BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED
curator: Basak Senova
artist: Orit Ishay
venue: Philomena +/FotoWien
coordinates: Vienna, 2019
website: https://fotowien.at/en/programme-2019/congress/orit-ishay-someone-has-been-sleeping-my-bed/

A man is lying on a bed without moving. The position of his body suggests no action by maintaining an immobile posture as if he is dead; it feels like the body will remain completely still. The positioning of his hands raises a suspicion; it is not clear for the viewer whether it was staged to manipulate how the body must be seen and experienced. Nevertheless, the same body posture also stimulates a scene of sleep. Therefore, the photograph creates a tidal situation between life and death.

Each photograph in Someone Has Been Sleeping in My Bed series displays the same body in distinctly different interior setting that has its unique style, character, theme, fashion, and atmosphere.

Someone Has Been Sleeping in My Bed designates a binary orientation in line with the contemporary discourse of photography: on the one hand, each photograph focuses on visible reality, yet on the other hand, it relates to its photographic trace to various interpretative fields, rooted in pre-existing connotations. Therefore, these photographs question our perception of reality and the medium itself by creating another layer of complexity of vision and gaze on space, time and perspective.

The exhibition was accompanied by a panel discussion with Orit Ishay, Basak Senova, and Christine Bruckbauer moderated by Marina Grzinic at Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien.

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