Photographs that someone considered unimportant enough to discard are often the beginning of a new story for Erik Kessels. For nearly three decades, the Dutch artist, curator, and communication designer has explored what happens to everyday images when they are removed from their original context, edited differently, and presented to an audience in a new way. His work, in which amateur photography and accidental mistakes can become artistic material, will take center stage during a five-day program in Zagreb from October 12 to 16.
The program opened yesterday with As Far as You Can See, the first comprehensive survey of Kessels’ photobooks, spanning publications from 1997 to his latest titles, Incomplete Encyclopedia of Touch and MAN. The exhibition space of creative agency Brigada will feature 17 copies of different titles, a large-scale wall piece, and a spatial intervention conceived specifically for the Zagreb exhibition.
Since 1996, Kessels has been a creative partner at KesselsKramer, an agency operating in Amsterdam and London, with projects for brands including Nike, Heineken, Diesel, and Vitra. He has published more than a hundred books, including Failed It! and Complete Amateur, and has delivered more than 500 public lectures over the past 25 years. His artistic practice focuses particularly on discovering new meanings in private, amateur, and forgotten photographs.
He will also share this approach with students through the Personality Before Portfolio workshop, bringing together eight photography students from the Academy of Dramatic Art and eight students from the School of Design. The starting point is simple: creating good work and knowing how to present it are two different skills. Through mentoring and collaboration, students will develop their own projects, ranging from photographic series and books to installations, while exploring how to recognize and clearly express their creative identity.
The five-day program concludes on October 16 with a public masterclass at Scena F22 at 6 p.m. Kessels will discuss the relationship between art and communication, photobook editing, the value of failure, and the ways ordinary images acquire new meanings. The conversation will be moderated by Davor Konjikušić from the Academy of Dramatic Art and Marija Juza from the School of Design. Later that evening, at 8 p.m., an exhibition of works created during the workshop will open at the School of Design Gallery.
The program is jointly organized by the Department of Photography at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, the School of Design at the Faculty of Architecture, and Brigada, with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Croatia and the Erasmus+ program of the University of Zagreb.
