Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin - Artists (in alphabetic order)

LIBRETTO

(And what she is, that dares she to appear!)

Kronenboden

Bettina Cohnen: NEBENSCHAUPLÄTZE - Gefälle #4
2008 © Bettina Cohnen
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And what she is, that dares she to appear! this is how Maria Stuart challenges her opposite number Queen Elizabeth, in Schillers eponymous play, to put an end to all juggling and reveal her true identity to the people.

The effort to arrive at ones true identity or perhaps better, the exploration of the extent to which an identity may be just trickery and deception is the central issue in the work of Bettina Cohnen. Putting herself in front of the camera, she develops photographic sequences of scenes where the process of becoming a self can be recognised as a fragile construction between external definition and personal invention. This is no less the case in her series Nebenschauplätze [Secondary Scenes], which forms the centrepiece of the exhibition LIBRETTO. The pictorial sequences that make up this work resemble stills from a film, and show the artist trying out different female masquerades and images. In Cohnens staged presentations we always sense her endeavouring to unmask stereotypical roles by showing them to be constructed assertions of identity.