| | | | | | | | | Becoming a Ghost. Meeting Moment © Giath Taha. | | | Giath Taha » Foam 3h: Becoming a Ghost | | | | 15 July – 30 October 2022 | | | Open for Business -
Magnum Photographers on Commission | | | | | | | ... until 7 September 2022 | | | | | | | ... until 12 October 2022 | | | Surinamese Wedding Portraits | | | | | | | ... until 7 September 2022 | | | | | | Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Keizersgracht 609 . 1017 DS Amsterdam
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Maybe my eyes turned blue, 2021 © Giath Taha | | | Giath Taha » Foam 3h: Becoming a Ghost | | | | 15 July – 30 October 2022 | | | | The video installation Becoming a Ghost by Syrian-born artist Giath Taha captures the artist's emotional reunion with his brother in the online video game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), while they haven't been able to see each other in real life for ten years. | | | | | | | | | | Maybe my eyes turned blue, 2021 © Mazen Al Ashkar & Giath Taha. | | | | | | A gateway to revisit the past
When a peaceful uprising against the president of Syria turned into a full-scale civil war in 2011, artist Giath Taha was forced to flee the country. Perhaps that is why it feels peculiar that the game PUBG is massively popular in Syria, given its eerie similarity to the actual state of the ongoing war in the country.
In the game, hundred avatars are simultaneously unleashed on a virtual island and everyone competes to be the last person or team standing. Eventually, the artist found out that his own brother is an avid player of the game. While the threat of sudden death constantly looms large, the game offered the brothers a safe zone to discuss topics that on regular communication platforms would otherwise be censored. | | | | | | | | | | Maybe my eyes turned blue, 2021 © Giath Taha | | | | | | | Giath Taha (b. 1982, Syria) studied Photography and Applied Arts at the Walled Izzat Institute in Damascus and Literature at the University of Damascus, Syria. He subsequently graduated from the MA Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague in 2021. He received both the MA Artistic Research Department Award 2021 as well as the Royal Academy Master Award 2021 for his graduation work Becoming a Ghost (2021). Taha participated in several group shows. His exhibition in Foam 3h is his first museum solo show. Giath Taha lives and works in Amsterdam. | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Gucci makeup fashion shoot, Brooklyn, New York City, USA, 2019
© Bruce Gilden / Magnum Photos. | | | | | Open for Business -
Magnum Photographers on Commission | | | | | | | ... until 7 September 2022 | | | This spring Foam presents the exhibition Open for Business – Magnum Photographers on Commission. For over 75 years, the photographers of Magnum Photos have not only created photographic icons on both major events and hidden stories, but have simultaneously worked on commission. The exhibition shows a side of Magnum that the general public is hardly aware of, and which its photographers rarely promote themselves. In eight chapters, the audience is taken on a variety of commercial assignments: from carte blanche group assignments for governments to the hippest fashion photography; and from chic publications for major industries to reporting in the service of NGOs.
Although rarely recognized as "Magnum work" by a wider audience, it does tell a vital part of the Magnum story, and of the story of photography in general, which occupies a complex cultural position at the intersection of art, documentary and commerce. | | | | | | | | | | A young actor working with the Fani Raghman Ani group, an association defending human rights in Tunisia, showing a taffoo on his back saying ’freedom’ in Arabic. Tunis, Tunisia, 2017 © Newsha Tavakolian / Magnum Photos | | | | | | This exhibition aims to unveil an interesting and lesser-known aspect of Magnum photographers’ portfolios and, in doing so, the reality of a career in photography: Open For Business exposes the true nature of the job, which comes with assignments that highlight the qualities of Magnum’s visual storytellers in completely different ways.
Open for Business shines a light on the diversity of Magnum’s commissioned work from the 1950s to 2019. From the beginning, the balance between independent and commercial work has led to fierce discussions amongst Magnum photographers. Every member of the agency considers corporate commissions differently. This exhibition features the outcome of these experiences, putting a sharp focus on the ethical questions that arise with them. It reveals interactions between commercial and personal photography, emphasizing the ways in which photographers have shaped or changed the visual languages of corporations by applying their personal sensitivity to assignments, with surprising, ironic and often humorous results. | | | | | | | | | Humanitas dementia centre hairdresser, Deventer, Holland, 2019
© Rafal Milach / Magnum Photos | | | | | | This exhibition has been developed in collaboration with Magnum Photos Paris and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. It is curated by Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, and Mirjam Kooiman, curator of Foam.
Foam is supported by the VriendenLoterij, Foam Members, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, the VandenEnde Foundation and the Gemeente Amsterdam.
In 2022 Foam receives additional support from the Mondriaan Fund and receives a contribution through the Mondriaan Fund from the Ministerie van OCW. | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mashallah with extra cheese, 2021 © Mous Lamrabat / Loft Art Gallery | | | | | | | ... until 12 October 2022 | | | | Foam proudly presents Blessings from Mousganistan, an exhibition by self-taught photographer Mous Lamrabat (Morocco, 1983). Beauty and a sense of hope are central to Lamrabat’s work. His photographs are playful and surrealistic, every so often subtly provocative, but always vibrant and fun. His work is exhilarating and at times a confronting fusion of his diasporic life, using beauty and humour to create powerful new narratives related to sensitive issues like racism, religion and women’s rights. In Blessings from Mousganistan, the artist shares a message of love through a colourful and eclectic visual experience. | | | | | | | | | | X-Rated#1, 2017 © Mous Lamrabat / Loft Art Gallery | | | | | | Blessings from Mousganistan
The world of Mous Lamrabat is a place where life is at peace and people are loved, no matter where you are from or where you are going. This is the experience the artist wants to bring across in the exhibition Blessings from Mousganistan: you step into the fascinating utopia the artist has created within the museum walls of Foam. He asks and sometimes pushes the viewer to look differently at the images in front of them; he has superimposed his photographs in large lenticular prints or vacuum pulled portraits around a Nike logo and the McDonalds “M” the artist incorporated into his work. By changing the shapes of well-known symbols and images, Lamrabat deconstructs the notion of “normal”. What first consisted of familiar colours and forms has now been altered and redefined into a different meaning defined by the artist. In his exhibition, Lamrabat also provides a chance for a more intimate interaction to see the works up close which serves as an introduction to the final part of the exhibition where universal prayer flags grace the space. The installation is a response to the ongoing stream of refugees from all parts of the world. It is a reminder from the artist to take care of one another and more importantly, to care of everyone indiscriminately of their skin colour or origins. | | | | | | | | | | Slow it down 2017 © Mous Lamrabat / Loft Art Gallery | | | | | | Mous Lamrabat was born in Northern Morocco and grew up in Flanders, Belgium. He is an autodidact photographer who graduated with a degree in Interior Design from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. His work has been published internationally in magazines such as Vogue, Esquire, Stylist Magazine, among many others. In 2020 Mous was part of the group exhibition Just Pictures, curated by Antwaun Sargent at projects+gallery, St. Louis (Missouri) and in 2021 he had a solo exhibition at the photography museum FOMU in Antwerp. Mous Lamrabat is represented by Loft Art Gallery in Casablanca, Morocco.
The exhibition Blessings from Mousganistan will be opened on Friday 27 May, in the presence of theartist. | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Piare-Parabirsing © Robby Parabirsing | | | | | Surinamese Wedding Portraits | | | | | | | 24 June – 7 September 2022 | | | | From 24 June, Foam will present the exhibition Surinamese Wedding Portraits, a collection of memorable portraits that together cover almost a century of Surinamese history. The photographs span the period from 1846 to 1954, when Surinam was still a Dutch colony. The family photos and stories show the extent to which Surinamese people, under Dutch administration, migrated to all corners of the world. They often found their partner elsewhere, in places like Aruba, Curaçao or Bonaire, in the former Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands or North America. The strength of this collection of personal photos therefore lies in the multitude of different engagements that stretched across the globe. | | | | | | | | | | Lievendag-Overeem © Shirley Overeem | | | | | | A century of marriages in Surinam, in words and images
With over one hundred wedding pictures and stories, this exhibition portrays the wedded lives of Surinamese people between 1846 and 1954. The portraits tell the story of the countless personal bonds that often transcend national boundaries, ethnicity or religion. The many different family histories reveal how this did not always go down smoothly. Yet most lovers followed their hearts, and love generally triumphed over the spirit of the times.
The family stories are often interwoven with important themes in Suriname’s colonial history, such as slavery, contract labour, immigration and emigration, conflict and struggle. But the stories also talk about personal bonds, diversity and unity. For that reason, the photographs are not only of great significance to the people whose family histories were immortalised, but also embody a shared (inter)national history.
The earliest photograph in the collection dates from 1846: just seven years after the introduction of daguerreotype, an early photographic process that soon made its way to Surinam. The bride in this photograph, Maria Louisa de Hart, was born into slavery. The last photograph dates from 1954, the year Surinam became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Independence followed on 25 November 1975.
The idea to bring these extraordinary portraits together originated with Lucia Nankoe, the initiator of this exhibition, in 2014. Together with her team she spoke with descendants of bridal couples with at least one ancestor of Surinamese descent. The resulting collection of portraits has continued to grow steadily since the publication of a book and a travelling exhibition in 2019. The project now comprises more than 135 photographs and stories, which together span almost one century of Surinamese history.
Some of the stories were written down by the descendants personally, others were drawn up based on conversations, written information and archival material. Some photographs lack background information, and many show traces of time and use, such as scratches and stains. These historical traces have been left intact on the scans that are on display. | | | | | | | | | | | Gaitri-Sweeb © Aldith Hunkar. | | | | | | We wish to thank the descendants who made their photographs available for this exhibition.
This exhibition was created in collaboration with initiator Lucia Nankoe. Foam also thanks Gerard Sweep and Astrid Waltmans for their support.
The book Trouwportretten. Surinaamse Voorouders in Beeld. Album 1846-1950 was published by Uitgeverij In de Knipscheer in 2019. A follow-up book will be published later this year.
Foam is supported by the VriendenLoterij, Foam Members, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, the VandenEnde Foundation and the City of Amsterdam.
In 2022 Foam receives additional support from the Mondriaan Fund and receives a contribution through the Mondriaan Fund from the Ministerie van OCW. | | | | | | unsubscribe here
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