Todi Circular Nº 3 - In media res

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May I propose that you, Dear Reader, don’t scan this at high speed (as you are certainly tempted to do right now, as it’s one amongst your other 30 emails (or 300?) that have just arrived this morning)… but print it up, retire to an easy chair with the drink of your choosing (yes, that chair by the window), put your feet up, and enjoy these Todi short stories.

In this 3^rd issue of the Todi Circular….

Curator Urs Stahel describes his back-and-forth shuttling between Switzerland and Italy, and why, while briefly recapping his post-Winterthur Fotomuseum career.
Photographer Olivo Barbieri wins a new prize, while planning a project on his 30 years’ work in China.
Collector Pedro Slim hopes to have his fine collection shown in Amsterdam soon, while finding time for his own photography in a very anxious Mexico City.
Critic and photographer Jörg Colberg tells us about the joys of ditching social media (with a compensating strategy), while reminding us all of the precarious nature of teaching.
Artist Penelope Umbrico gives us an overview of her various exhibition and publication projects, and laments not being able to travel to see many of them.

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URS STAHEL CURATOR ZURICH / BOLOGNA

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Position
The place of my life, of my profession? I knew very early on that I wanted to live in Zurich, my city of birth. But only if I could link it to two things: Firstly, I wanted to get away from Zurich for half a year every 5 years and go somewhere, if possible connected with my work. And secondly, during my studies I was a big fan of Sartre and Beauvoir. The idea that they had two residences, the central one in Paris and one in Rome, was something I loved as a student. Well, I stayed in Zurich, but unfortunately none of my other ideas could be realized. Yes, I was in London for a year, but after that I stuck in Zurich. The 22 years of work for founding, directing, curating and writing – on, with, through, because of the Fotomuseum Winterthur – gave me oversized support. It became my life. At the moment I want to finally fulfill my second wish. The second residence. Since I have been working in Italy a lot the last 7 years anyway, it will probably be a small place down there. It is finally time to make this happening. I would like to write a few things there.

Since I left the Fotomuseum Winterthur, I have been working as a freelance curator for MAST Foundation in Bologna. A new institution dedicated to the examination of topics such as industry, technology and labor. I am also the major consultant for the collection that is being built up there. A collection of photographs and videos on the same topics. I am also a consultant for the Vontobel Art Collection, and President of Spectrum – Photography in Switzerland. During these years I was also a lecturer at the ZHdK and the University of Lucerne, visiting professor at the University of Zurich, and visiting fellow at the University of the Arts in London.

Recent
Since 2013 I am officially a freelance curator, writer and lecturer. In the past two years I have also been an editor. I have published 3 books. Giorgio Wolfensberger: Photo Povera. Edition Patrick Frey, 2018. Giorgio Wolfensberger originally learned industrial photography, then became a filmmaker and documentary photographer. Through him I got into industrial photography. He died 4 years ago. This book is a homage to him, with his own photographs. Then the book about Walter Keller, the publisher of Scalo Publishers (Zurich-Berlin-New York), co-edited with Miriam Wiesel. A 420 pages book calle “Walter Keller – Beruf: Verleger (Profession-Publisher)”, 2019 about this whirlwind of a publisher, who unfortunately died much too early, about his publishing house, bookstore, gallery Scalo, but also about the magazine “Der Alltag” (The Daily Life) and the foundation of “Parkett” (together with Bice Curiger, Jacqueline Burckhardt and Peter Blum). Finally, 2 weeks ago, the book by André Cepeda: Ballad of Today. The book, published by Pierre von Kleist, for the exhibition of the same name at the MAAT in Lisbon. The exhibition will run until the end of January 2021, an intense walk through many corners of Lisbon. In addition an exhibition by Thomas Struth in spring 2019 for the MAST in Bologna, “Anthropocene” for the MAST in summer 2019, finally “Uniform” and “Walead Beshty” both in the first half of 2020.

Currently
In the past five weeks I have set up three exhibitions. André Cepeda: Ballad of Today at the MAAT in Lisbon, then the MAST Foundation Grant for Photography exhibition at the MAST in Bologna (with Alinka Echeverrià (winner), Chloe Dewe Mathews, Maxime Guyon, Aapo Huhta and Pablo López Luz) and finally “Invention”, the exhibition by Luce Lebart. I am currently working at full speed on a large exhibition with Richard Mosse at MAST in Bologna. Opening: January 20, 2021, so unfortunately very soon and very big, on more than 12’000 square feet. Smaller things in a personal conversation.

Life during the pandemic
Here is just one story: last week, on October 7th, Luce Lebart was to set up and open the exhibition “Invention” at the MAST in Bologna. Because she lives in the hotspot Paris, she had to undergo a Covid test in order to enter Italy at all. The test could not have been made more than 48 hours before entry. She stuck to it, but then she had to wait 10 long days! until the result finally came. Accordingly, we had to set up the exhibition without her. But, I wondered, maybe she will make it to the opening? The day before the opening, she received the news: she was Covid positive. Maybe she had caught it on a Sunday walk with Thyago Nogueira [Brazilian curator], who was tested positive after the walk, and could therefore only travel to Milan with a delay, in order to be able to set up his Claudia Andujar exhibition in the Triennale of Milano.

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Installation view: Exhibition “Uniform” at MAST, 2020

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Alinka Echeverría: Apparent Femininity. Winner of the MAST Foundation Grant of Photography 2020.

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Past
I had the exhibition Parks and Mountains, in Aosta, Centro Saint-Bénin, from November 2019 through April this year, which a book by Magonza Editore,
I also opened the exhibition EARLY WORKS 1980–1984, in Bergamo, at the Monastero di Astino, which ran through October. A book by SilvanaEditoriale, accompanied the exhibition.
I won the First Lagazuoi Photo Award. The exhibition, Olivo Barbieri DOLOMITES PROJECT 2010, ran from July through September, at the Lagazuoi Refuge, which is 3000 meters above sea level, near Cortina d’ Ampezzo.

Currently
I am working on different projects related to my archive (more than 40 years of work). Of special interest to me is a book and an exhibition I am preparing about my 30 years of travel in China, beginning in 1989.
The MIBACT (Ministry of Italian Culture) is preparing an exhibition in Rome at Palazzo Barberini, involving several artists invited to realize a project during the lockdown.

Would appreciate help with
I would like help for the production of the book and the exhibition of my long-term China project 1989-2019.
I think could be a good decision for the Contemporary National Museum would be to buy photographs from the Italian artists in order to help them and also to improve their art collections.

Life during the pandemic

Too early to talk about it…

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Olivo Barbieri, Carpi, Province of Modena, during lockdown, 2020.

PEDRO SLIM COLLECTOR / PHOTOGRAPHER MEXICO CITY

Position
I am doing well, though the country is in a big mess, politically and COVID wise.

Currently
Since the time I was in Todi, I have been taking a lot of photographs, and keep on collecting (not as much as I would like), less so because of the economic crisis which has hurt lots of people.

The Cobra Museum in Amsterdam asked for 120 pieces of my collection for showing in September 2020 but they had to change it to January the 13th due to Covid. I am still doubting if it is going to happen, but until now it’s ok. I really miss a lot Todi !!

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Pedro Slim © Ricardo Velmor for La Tempestad

JÖRG COLBERG PROFESSOR / CRITIC WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS

Position
My position as a professor of photography at a US art school (University of Hartford) ended at the end of June 2020. So far, the pandemic has made it impossible to find new (steady) employment. For now, I’m getting by (of sorts) doing whatever freelance gigs come my way (writing, my own private teaching).

Recent
I actually met Arthur Ollman during the Todi Circle, and then worked with him on a book of some of his past work. We ended up assembling a very touching book about his time in Maine at the beginning of the 1970s.

I also finished work on my first photobook (entitled Vaterland), for which there is a broad release date set at the end of the year. The book contains photographs I made from 2016 until 2019 in Germany and Poland, and it comments on the re-emergence of a violent far-right party in contemporary Germany.

On 28 October this year, MACK will publish an expanded version of what originally was a book review, now entitled Photography’s Neoliberal Realism. The book is going to be part of MACK’s new series DISCOURSE (“In our new series DISCOURSE, leading writers, artists, and critics offer radical approaches to photography and visual culture in short, inexpensive, richly illustrated editions.”).

I see the book as operating in the spirit of the essays in Roland Barthes’ Mythologies, in which larger cultural and/or societal aspects are discussed, given how they are being represented in pictures. In my case, I’m looking at images that photographers like Annie Leibovitz, Gregory Crewdson, and Andreas Gursky are known for, and argue that they essentially serve as propaganda for the form of aggressive neoliberal capitalism we’re living under.

Currently
Apart from setting up my own private teaching, I’m mostly focused on finding new employment. Given the political and societal instability in the United States, the focus of my search has become Europe, in particular Germany (but excluding the UK, Poland, and Hungary for reasons which should be pretty obvious).

Would appreciate help with
If anyone knows of open positions (teaching, writing, curation), that would be great.

Life during the pandemic
I’ve discovered the value of a personalized Mailing List — both as a way to eventually ditch social media (I quit Facebook years ago but still are on Twitter) and to re-create some of the more personal connections that I used to have with readers back during the “golden days” of blogging (which were destroyed by social media around 2010). It’s not a newsletter (there hardly is any news); instead, I mostly write about what preoccupies me, something that — to my amazement —
a lot of people have reacted to very strongly. You can access the Mailing List here: https://cphmag.substack.com/

PENELOPE UMBRICO ARTIST NEW YORK

Position
No moves, still in Brooklyn, still teaching at SVA – this fall will be all online 🙁
New studio though – if anyone is in town and wants to come for a socially-distanced-masked visit, I welcome you! (… like we’re all traveling, ha).

Recently
Surprisingly most things have continued (exhibitions and publications) and a lot of new things have presented themselves (screen-based projects, book projects, talks, etc). And of course, a number of in-person events, like book launches and openings, were cancelled, or, being in the US, I can’t get to those that are continuing in Europe. And some things have really slowed down (gallery sales).
All teaching has been online since March – I’m in the process of revising my syllabi to include more screen-based work, since it seems that this is where we will be for some time.
In April I did the first of 9 “Screen Walks” via Zoom for the collaboration between Fotomuseum Winterthur and The Photographer’s Gallery – all 9 can be found here: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/content/screen-walks, and since then given quite a few online artist talks. Aside from not seeing your audience, which is really a drag, it is cool that many of the talks I’ve given would not have taken place at all, if not for Zoom… opposite time zones seem closer than ever, which is interesting. But in early March, just before the lockdown, I traveled by invitation to Vancouver, Canada to give a talk at UBC and meet with grad students – I really miss that engagement and getting to know a place.
I produced a new version of my project Everyone’s Moon Any License, which was acquired by the George Eastman Museum in January. Last fall I had a solo exhibition at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Australia, with new work developed from the Everyone’s Moon Any License project
Last fall I also completed a new video developed from my project “Bad Display” for the very specific display at 150 Media Stream in Chicago, IL.
(… and in 2019 I was in 11 other exhibitions).

Currently
I just completed a large site-specific installation, “Range: of Mount Grammont”, for Festival Images Vevey Biennale, Switzerland. – it opened Sept 5. (one of the openings I was unable to attend – please go and send pics if you’re in the area!).
I have two brand new projects: Cloud Inversions, (drawings, made on an iPad, based on photographs of clouds I took from airplanes); and Cloud/Paper/Screen (a video animation comprising images of clouds cropped from the digital images of scanned photographs in the museum’s collection), in the current exhibition, Gathering Clouds, at the George Eastman Museum, in Rochester NY: https://www.eastman.org/gathering-clouds-photographs-nineteenth-century-and-today, and for which there will be a panel discussion “webinar” (I hate that word) in November.
This fall I will have three video works in the exhibition New For Old, at Metro Arts, Brisbane, Australia.
I completed a new web piece, and it will be hosted this fall on the !!!Sección Arte in El Paquete Semanal project website (not sure when) in association with the Screen Walks with Fotomuseum Winterthur and The Photographer’s Gallery.
I am guest editing issue #13 of Der Greif Magazine, which I titled “Surplus Management (In and Out of Order)”, and for this I launched an international call for images of surplus which I then strung together to make new visual space within the pages of the journal – it was supposed to launch at Arles, but as this was cancelled (along with various other cancelled launches), it is printing now and will be available mid-Sept: https://dergreif-online.de/ – very proud of this project – please check it out!
I also made an e-book, “Some Used Power Cords For Sale (eBay)”, comprising a selection of images I’ve collected between 2010 and 2020, for a cool project with ABC (Artists’ Books Cooperative). It will eventually be a printed book, but right now, along with the other amazing artist’s books in this project, it is downloadable as a PDFs on the ABC site abcdays.cargo.site.
And just because, I made a printable pdf coloring book at the beginning of all this for everyone I know who has kids at home. It’s called, “Sun/Screen (coloring book), for when screen light replaces sun light”. It’s made from YSYBCSVY< n yqa<images of suns I found on the web, and can be downloaded here if you’re interested: Download the book.
I also made an intervention, in response to global sadness, on my website here: http://www.penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/suns-from-sunsets-from-flickr/

Looking for help with
I had been invited to work with an archive housed at the Herzog and de Meuron Kabinett in Basel and then be a part of a panel discussion at Kunstmuseum Basel this September –

Life during the pandemic
I feel guilty saying this but despite not being able to travel, and all the anxiety-making things (like, if the galleries disappear will I be able to afford to continue to make work… and, who am I making this work for anyway?) and how seriously fucked up things are in the US (like, Republican support for trump, the lying RNC-ers – most of whom are astoundingly unhinged, federal troops at peaceful protests, the likelihood of interference in upcoming elections… to say nothing of Covid deaths and related economic issues the entire world is facing), I am kind of enjoying being relatively hermetic, working in my studio, and I feel very lucky to have a small garden!

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My installation, this autumn in Vevey, Switzerland

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