Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin

The Ungraspable Face

Galerie Pankow

organised by: BA. Pankow von Berlin - Amt für Kultur und Bildung

Gundula Schulze Eldowy: Das unfassbare Gesicht
2001 © Gundula Schulze Eldowy
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In her exhibition Das unfassbare Gesicht [The Ungraspable Face], German photographer Gundula Schulze El Dowy is presenting colour photographs that were taken at various locations in Peru and Bolivia Lambayeque, Trujillo, Casma, Lima, Marcahuasi, Nazca, Cuzco and Tiahuanacu. The subject matter has been inspired by art of the pre-Inca cultures. In the course of her work the photographer discovered countless faces in the artistic representations of the ancient Peruvians, and was prompted to put the question what a face actually is. She went on to photograph some 2000 faces, at close range and with close-up lenses, mostly just showing the eyes, nose and mouth always the same section. People she met on the road, faces of animals, faces in the Nazca desert, rocky faces in the Andes, faces of nature spirits, trophy heads, mummies, ceramic faces, sculptures, gold masks... And they all seem to have been created in accordance with a kind of central code.