Fotografia europea
Reggio Emilia 2007

settimana
di apertura
27 aprile
5 maggio

mostre fino
al 10 giugno

Biography

ARMIN LINKE

Armin Linke (Milan, 1966) started his activity working as an assistant for the great portraitist Enzo Nocera and Superstudio, and focused his attention on the theatre, art and contemporary artists, documenting the preparations of Documenta in Kassel (1992) and of the Biennale d’Arte in Venice (1990 and 1993). His initial passion for the theatre scene and mime – gestural representation of the body concentrated on the face – became the lifeblood of his professional and artistic work. His research shifted through the use of different means of expression, video, photograph, installation, performance. He tries to propose new outlooks conscious of contemporary reality. His approach does not forget the political and social side of situations beyond the forms of artistic language in themselves, narrating worlds and situations through images. His work on the Genoa G8 conference is significant to this regard, where Linke, from the inside, photographed the physical, social, psychological and cultural environment that generated the event and that suffered the consequences. He has been working on a progressively growing picture archive concerning different human activities and new natural and artificial landscapes since the 1990s, as he tries to document situations in which the boundaries between fiction and reality dwindle and become invisible. His participation at contemporary art biennials has been significant, some of which are the latest Biennale di Architettura of Venice (2000), where he “staged” his vast archive of pictures and visitors could choose one of the thousand print-outs tossed in a haphazard fashion into a huge box; the Biennial of Sao Paolo (2002), where two large colour photographic prints were placed beside a set with videos on which images of the artist’s archive ran; and the Biennial of the Caribbean organised in St. Kitts by Maurizio Cattelan (2001). Since 1998 he has been working on the “4Flight” project, two books on the phenomena that are altering the living system of the planet. Linke also contributes to magazines in the fields of fashion, design and art. He has been working on the “Instant Book” project since 1995. It is a series of photographic books dedicated to the theme of transformation of the body concept. In recent years he has presented one-man shows at prominent public and private venues: Storefront, New York (2004), Biz-Art, Shanghai (2004), Galleria Civica, Modena (2003), Galleria Marabini, Bologna (2000), Studio Massimo De Carlo, Milan (1999), and he has taken part in collective exhibitions, including: Scapes, Haus der Kunst, Merano (2004), 50° Esposizione Universale d’Arte, Biennale of Venice (2003), Far away so close, Aosta (2003), Side Effects, Triennale, Milan (2002), Cities on the Move, Hayward Gallery, London (1999), and Berlin Biennial (1998).