Orlando - Based on a novel by Virginia Woolf

Orlando - Based on a novel by Virginia Woolf, Fotomuseum Winterthur , Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland, 26 February 2022 - 29 May 2022

The 1928 novel Orlando tells the story of a young noble person in the age of Queen Elizabeth I who lives for centuries without ageing and has the mysterious ability to switch gender. In 1992, film-maker Sally Potter devised what has become a classic adaptation of the book with actress Tilda Swinton in the title role. ‘I see Orlando as a story about the life and development of a human striving to become liberated entirely from the constructs of prescriptive gender or social norms of any kind,’ Tilda Swinton says of Woolf’s story.

Friendship. Nature. Culture | 44 Years of the Daimler Art Collection

Friendship. Nature. Culture | 44 Years of the Daimler Art Collection, Daimler Contemporary Berlin , Daimler Contemporary Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 23 October 2021 - 29 May 2022

The anniversary exhibition ‘Friendship. Nature. Culture. 44 Years of the Daimler Art Collection’ looks back on the development of an internationally renowned corporate collection. From over 3,000 artworks in the collection, founded in 1977, about 100 works by ca. 70 artists have been selected. Relating, in a broad sense, to contemporary phenomena in the context of friendship, nature and culture, the artistic works from a period of 100 years form networks and explore the interplay between art and human coexistence.

Secret Wing / Aripa Secreta

Secret Wing / Aripa Secreta, Timisoara Național Art Museum , Timisoara Național Art Museum, Timisoara, Romania, 20 September 2021 - 15 November 2021

Secret Wing is a metaphor, encapsulating the tensions and contradictions of a postmodern poetics permeated by an acute sense of loneliness and isolation. The exhibition takes as a starting point the idea that the 1980’s activated inner and collective resources forging prolific intersections between art and poetry. This decade is significant, because, having immediately preceded the reunification of Europe through the implosion of the communist regimes and the fall of the Berlin Wall, it led to a burst of creativity and a high concentration of artistic resources and moral resistance.

Paint Studies

Paint Studies, 2021

Viviane Sassen’s language shifted when she introduced ink, paint and collage to her photographic practice, deepening the surrealist and sculptural element in her imagery. Her experiments with uncanny shadows, fragmented bodies and dream-like landscapes project mundane scenes into the realm of the fantastical. In other instances, the chasm between reality and the imagined is more subtle; the viewer is seduced by the texture of Sassen’s constructions, while simultaneously disoriented by her unexpected moments of fiction.

Venus & Mercury

Venus & Mercury, Huis Marseille , Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1 June 2020 - 30 August 2020

In the spring of 2020 - 8 years after her highly acclaimed exhibition In and Out of Fashion - Viviane Sassen returns to Huis Marseille with the monumental exhibition Venus & Mercury. This exhibition originated in Versailles where Sassen created new work, inspired by various histories around the French court in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Especially for Huis Marseille, Sassen made a number of installations that refer to its canal houses in relation to the history of Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Pictures from Another Wall

Pictures from Another Wall, Museum de Pont , Museum de Pont, Tilburg, the Netherlands, 15 February 2020 - 5 July 2020

Huis Marseille, Museum voor Fotografie in Amsterdam, bestaat twintig jaar. Met een tentoonstelling van zo’n honderd werken uit de collectie wordt dit lustrum gevierd in de nieuwe vleugel van de Tilburgse zusterinstelling museum De Pont. In de afgelopen twee decennia heeft Huis Marseille een mooie verzameling bijeengebracht van ruim zevenhonderd fotowerken van internationaal toonaangevende fotografen als Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Andreas Gursky, Andres Serrano, Deana Lawson, Viviane Sassen en Jean-Luc Mylayne. Maar ook minder gevestigde namen zijn vertegenwoordigd, zoals Jamie Hawkesworth en Julie Greve, die opereren op het snijvlak van mode en kunst.

Tokyo 2020 Official Art Posters

Tokyo 2020 Official Art Posters, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (entrance hall) , Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (entrance hall), Tokyo, Japan, 6 January 2020 - 16 February 2020

The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture will hold a Tokyo 2020 Official Art Posters Exhibition at the entrance hall of Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo from Tuesday, 7 January to Sunday, 16 February, 2020. The Tokyo 2020 official art posters (20 in total) will be unveiled for the first time to the public at this exhibition.

Body Performance

Body Performance, Helmut Newton Foundation , Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, Germany, 30 November 2019 - 10 May 2020

Performance is an independent art form and photography is its constant companion. Human actions in front of the camera can be conscious or unconscious, choreographed or accidentally observed. For the first time, this group exhibition brings together photo sequences whose origins lie in performance art, dance, and other staged events, complemented by conceptual photography series. With their common focus on the human body, the images document or interpret performances, which in many cases have also been initiated by the photographers themselves.

Visible / Invisible

Visible / Invisible, Grand Trianon / Palace of Versailles , Grand Trianon / Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France, 14 May 2019 - 20 October 2019

For its twelfth contemporary art event, the Palace of Versailles invites 5 photographers from around the world to the Estate of Trianon, from 14 May 2019 to 20 October 2019. For this event, Dove Allouche, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Eric Poitevin and Viviane Sassen unveil new commission that echo the spirit of the venue. Their works, which combines creation and heritage, reveal a new Versailles.

Bauhaus and Photography - On new visions in contemporary art

Bauhaus and Photography - On new visions in contemporary art, NRW-Forum , NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf, Germany, 7 December 2018 - 10 March 2019

The Staatliche Bauhaus not only played a key role in the history of twentieth-century design and art, but also in photography. The exhibition “Bauhaus and Photography—On New Visions in Contemporary Art” at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf brings together photographs by proponents of this “new vision” with works by contemporary artists. The exhibition is part of the centennial program “100 Years of Bauhaus.”

Confusing Public and Private: The 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial

Confusing Public and Private: The 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial, CAFA Art Museum , CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China, 28 September 2018 - 29 October 2018

This year’s biennial is designed as part of the Special Exhibitions section of the 1st Beizhen International Photography Festival and will be held simultaneously at the Culture Industry Center of Beizhen and the CAFA Art Museum. The exhibition will showcase close to 1000 works of some 80 artists from around the world, which will be accompanied by a series of seminars, forums, talks and public education events.

Frame Freely

Frame Freely, Daegu Photo Biennale , Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu, South Korea, 7 September 2018 - 16 October 2018

First held in October 2006, the Daegu Photo Biennale, the largest photography event in South Korea, has been held on a total of six occasions as of 2016. The event, which has grown into one of South Korea’s three largest biennales, has taken root in Daegu a city with a rich culture of photography. Today, Daegu is still the city in South Korea with the highest number of university photography departments, making it the photography capital of South Korea.

Hot Mirror

Hot Mirror, The Hepworth Wakefield , The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK, 22 June 2018 - 7 October 2018

'For Hot Mirror Sassen will select individual images from her notable art photography series of the last ten years, as well as new photographs and collages. These selections will be combined to create ‘image-poems’ that draw on the Surrealist strategies of collage. Hot Mirror will also present a new version of Sassen’s immersive film, Totem, 2014, which places the visitor inside a surreal landscape.'

Lexicon

Lexicon, Artbeat Publishers, 2014, Hardcover, 72 pages

Viviane's first photo book in Japan, "LEXICON" includes the series by the same title which was chosen by Massimiliano Gioni to be part of The Encyclopedic Palace at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). The thirty-one images, encompassing iconic and more recent ones, wove together the themes recurring in her work: death, mourning, the fear of being alone and the longing for an emotional connection. The profound sensitivity behind the vivid images is enhanced by a delicate book design and the use of special Japanese paper.