Dayanita Singh - Go Away Closer

About

In her mobile ?museum structures?, the so-called Museum Bhavan, the New Delhi artist (b. 1961) compiles photographic collections of the past twenty-five years from her archive. She arranges these photos according to typology and presents them in displays of her own design. The result is a work of retrospective character with which the artist takes stock of her oeuvre to date.

Singh?s finely and precisely crafted photos, primarily in black and white, are characterized by a balance between powerful empathy and distance. The images transport social and economic circumstances of her native country India and find simple translations for complex constellations and emotional states.

Dayanita Singh made a name for herself above all with her meticulously designed artist?s books, which she has always considered portable museums. The latest large-scale presentation form of the ?Photo Architectures? is a logical development of the book format. These wooden structures, which can be rearranged and supplemented in an infinite number of ways, present anywhere from 70 to 140 black-and-white photographs carefully edited and placed in sequences by the artist. The visitors to the MMK 3 are invited to find their individual paths through the structures and come to their own personal interpretations of the photos. There is no pre-established order or museological hierarchy in the classical sense. With these objects, Singh expands on the concept of the photography medium to encompass sculptural and architectural aspects.

The show will be enhanced by Dayanita Singh?s most recent video work, the cinematic portrait Mona and Myself, as well as a museum shop designed by the artist.

The exhibition is being organized in cooperation with the Hayward Gallery in London. An artist?s book by Dayanita Singh is being published by the Steidel Verlag.