"We turn fantasy into reality and reality into fiction. Our creative process always starts with a story, and it is always a fantasy that we try to materialize in our photographs," say Nada Lottermann and Vanessa Fuentes.
In a period where images and visuality have transcended all forms of communication and become the reality of today, where verbal and written forms of conversation have been replaced by symbols, short expressions and image worlds, it is becoming increasingly difficult to actually 'see' what we look at, to establish communions and to deepen them. Visual art objects, on the other hand, have now turned into tools that are spent a short time in front of and looked at quickly, meeting the audience through perhaps overly flamboyant spaces and fictions in order to challenge decreasing levels of concentration. In such a time, projects that can break the routine of a classical exhibition-artist-audience hierarchy and create an atmosphere and experience that open space for collective sharing have become even more valuable.
The artist duo's Ping Pong project is an interactive image game that brings together photographers from different parts of the world - or their friends who love to take photographs - in a course of time between the production and the final show, offering the viewer a multiple perception. In this project, the duo sends e-mails to the opposite side with a particularly chosen photograph and asks their colleagues to respond with a photograph they have either just taken or that they have chosen from their body of previous work. What binds the two images can sometimes be obvious, otherwise hidden in the details, metaphorical, or completely formal. In a time when we have shorter attention spans, artists who are successful at paying attention to the small things, empathetically connecting with others, and inventing new narratives by fusing disparate visual realities sensitively reflect the non-verbal communication techniques at the foundation of photography.
During the exhibition process, Lottermann & Fuentes and their collaborators, to whom they responded with photographs, become anonymous and met under two titles, and the duo only sets the rules of the game - as a kind of quarterback - and becomes the mediator for the emergence of a new visual narrative. At this point, the narrator, the artist, the viewer, and the gaze in the photograph, all merge together, stretching the positions of the gazer and the viewed, and transforming into a pleasant struggle that also leads to capturing visual details. Photography is no longer an object to be viewed, but a tool of experience in which the dialogue and dynamic between the producer and the viewers are reconstructed. There is another important point here; while most artists construct this experience by focusing on the viewer's connection with their work, the duo prioritises those who share their own practices and create the images themselves. Thus, a partnership is established with other photographers for the creation of the work, leaving the interpretation of the final stories to the viewer.
Of course, the key word here is 'interaction'. While we live in an abundance of words and images, it is becoming more and more valuable to give time for interaction, to be able to notice the details subtly, and to give an authentic response to what we look at and perceive; whether humorous or serious, sad or joyful.
More information on the event can be found here.