Carte Blanche Students

Biographies

Florian Gatzweiler (b. 1998) has always harbored a deep interest in the arts, particularly in observing Things. Initially drawn to acting, Florian eventually found his passion in photography, prompting him to embark on his studies in 2020.

Sascha Levin (b. 2000) naturally developed an interest in photography, inspired by his father's profession as a cameraman. While working as a social worker, Sascha also realized the power of photography as a tool for giving voice to important issues. He has pursued studies in photography and, since 2021, also in social work.

The project

“In our photo series, we accompanied Ukrainian youths who are currently living in the small Polish town of Slubice due to the war situation.Like every day, around noon, the somewhat run-down basketball court near the city center fills up with the same faces. Someone pulls a Bluetooth box out of his pocket, cigarettes are smoked and cheap soft drinks are drunk. While in the background the always same basketball games are playing, one notices that despite the relaxed atmosphere, there are constant worries and fears of the young people. The desire to escape these thoughts is great and thus the friendships among themselves are one of the few distractions. Caught in this state of limbo, they try to give each other support and forget for a brief moment. Because in the end they all have one thing in common: there is a war going on in their country.”

Biography

Raisan Hameed (b. 1991) is an Iraq-born visual artist currently living in Leipzig. He received a Diploma in Fine Arts in 2022, and is currently pursuing an MA at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. In his works, Hameed deals with different dimensions of truth. While he concentrates on making the inside visible, he simultaneously identifies with the outcome. He is often the subject of his images, processing his experiences metaphorically through acting and experimentation.

Hameed's works have been exhibited in various exhibitions in Rotterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Bonn, Leipzig, Rome, Palermo and Sharjah.

The project

Zer-Störung tells the story of different periods in Mosul – the city of the artist’s birth. The starting point for the project was photographic material from Hameed’s family archive as well as his own photographs taken in Mosul. As carriers of memories, these images have visible and invisible layers; an observation that is already expressed in the title. A play on words, the English translation of "Zerstörung" is "destruction", describing the brutal damage that man inflicts on the world, his environment and other people. "Störung", in turn, translates to "irritation" – a term that Hameed connects to the impermanence of things. The artist uses abstraction as a strategy to break down the original function of the images, changing the way in which they are read.

By focusing on the materiality of images in Zer-Störung, observations and their political contexts are transformed. They become a metaphorical documentation of past, present and future. The process allows for the opening of doors, negotiation, reflection and exchange.

Biography

Kairo Urovi, an artist residing in London, explores the concepts of identity, belonging, and family diaspora in their artwork. Having obtained a BA degree in Photography from the London College of Communication, Kairo's artistic approach is community based. Their pieces have been showcased in various art galleries throughout London, including Autograph ABP, RichMix and Free Range. Being transgender themselves, Kairo is interested in the creation of new queer archives and the cultivation of a supportive network of visual artists who challenge the frequently damaging narratives propagated by the media.

The project

"Light Are the Wounds Heavy Is the Wind is a body of work that explores my journey back to my home country Albania and the challenges I faced as a queer and transgender person there.

Last December I travelled to my family hometown, Shkoder. Here, I struggled with the found dichotomy of language. Language is a way of making yourself known, of recognising black from white, of forming an identity that shapes who you are and also how others recognise you. In the UK my name is Kairo, my pronouns are he/they. In Albania, I find myself tongue-tied: language becomes a minefield I cross carefully, all senses engaged, no room for mistakes. Fear takes over me, and I retreat back to using a language I forgot to speak a long time ago. For a month, I do not hear my name said out loud.

The split reality of people perceiving me as the “old” me versus the identity I have fought so hard to embody and maintain is reflected in this body of work. I find myself complacent in my own suffering and feel left with no choice but to find my voice again through another medium: image-making. Here, I am safe. Here, I speak of the pain whilst simultaneously mustering the courage to find myself again. Through the work, I understand that belonging becomes a thread I carry with me instead of the physical spaces I inhabit.

Light Are the Wounds Heavy Is the Wind is what comes out of this journey. Within its depths, intricate emotions of displacement, solitude and seclusion, stemming from being perceived as a girl, a niece and a granddaughter, take centre stage. In this context, the camera shutter transcends its role as a mere instrument, evolving into a source of empowerment while simultaneously capturing the bittersweet nostalgia and yearning for my own visibility. This body of work is my way of saying I am here. Not despite the grief and the silence and the lack of words and the deadnaming but because of it. It’s my story about grief as much as it is about finding love within it. For everything I could not say through words, I found a way to say through photographs.”

Biography

Aurélie Giovannoni, whose artist name is Aurélie Nydegger, is a documentary photographer and visual artist from Switzerland. She graduated from the CEPV in Vevey with a degree in visual communication, specialising in photography, and is currently studying fiction at the HEAD in Geneva.

In 2021, she will complete her studies with the Champ du Repos project, which recounts the memories of her family during the Second World War. She continues her research with the Marcel(le) project, characterised by recurring family patterns and the absence of the father figure.

The project

"My paternal grandmother, Micheline, named Marcelle at birth, was born under the bombardments in Paris in 1943. She spent the first year of her life in an institution before her mother left with her to Switzerland.

Over dinner, my grandmother told me that for years she had been trying to find out who her father was, to no avail. Her intention was to find a photo of him, to project a face onto his. The only information she had was a first and last name: Marcel Bousselaire. So I investigated. First on the Net, then in Parisian institutions. One thing led to another, and the story of this enigmatic Bousselaire began to take shape:

"Madam, by your request in the virtual inventory room recorded on 20 January 2020, you informed the National Archives of your research into your great-grandfather: Marcel Armand Bousselaire, born on 13 October 1901 in Couture-Boussey, executed in Montrouge in 1947 for having been in the Gestapo during the Second World War. Marcel Bousselaire was one of the French auxiliaries of the German Gestapo in the rue des Saussaies in Paris. He was sentenced to death, national degradation and confiscation of his property by a decision of the Seine Court of Justice on 6 March 1947. His appeal was rejected on 28 March 1947 and he was executed on 14 August 1947. The investigation file concerning him and 14 co-defendants is held by the Archives nationales under numbers Z/6/347 and 348, file no.. 3699."

Marcel(le) is characterised by the absence of the father figure; by an idea of waiting, of confinement, of a missing image. Exhibiting this work in Paris would be a great opportunity to reactivate this family past in its rightful place; to exhume a memory that is both individual and national."