Dolomitenstadt will be presenting Maidje Meergans and Lena Maria Loose in the Lienz Art Workshop from August 6th.
In the summer of 2020, seven graduates of the renowned Berlin Ostkreuz School of Photography spent a one-week “Artist in Residence” in East Tyrol at the invitation of dolomitenstadt.at. This resulted in seven photographic approaches to the region. Two of these series of works will be shown in the Kunstwerkstatt Lienz from August 6th. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Friday, August 5th at 7 p.m.
Curator Rudolf Ingruber opted for Lena Maria Loose and Maidje Meergans, which at first glance present very different works. Maidje Meergans photographed a universal as well as intimate series about the growing up of four young girls in Villgratental, a photo report about a summer in limbo, high up on the mountain, carried by an attitude to life that young people everywhere else in the world could also have. Meergans, who works as a reportage photographer for media such as Die Zeit, Geo and NZZ, calls her East Tyrol series “Girlhood”.
Lena Maria Loose was inspired by a literary source when approaching East Tyrol. Loose reflects collage-like verbal images from Christoph Zanon’s novel “The Blue Ladder” in a series of carefully composed visual mood sketches. Like Zanon’s literary escape attempt, the photo series derives its tension from radical breaks.
The title of the exhibition also comes from Zanon’s novel: “I’m looking for a view into my valley”. It sums up one of the core statements of the exhibition and affects us all. We all long for liberation, for example by setting out “out” into nature, and we all explore our innermost valley of the soul, which can sometimes appear deep and dark.
Maidje Meergans and Lena Maria Loose make exactly this ambivalence visible with very different approaches. And that also shows where the art of their work lies. Not only the eye guides the hand on the shutter button, but also the thoughts and feelings of the photographers. Here, things are not only depicted, but told, not only shown, but made tangible.
“I’m looking for a view into my valley”
Photo art by Maidje Meergans and Lena Maria Loose
Art workshop Lienz, Mühlgasse 8a
August 6 to 27, Vernissage: August 5, 7 p.m