How Soon Is Now

How Soon is Now, our first major exhibition of photography, presents fifteen of the most interesting contemporary artists working with the photographic medium. They have been selected by five of the world’s leading artists and curators – Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno and Beatrix Ruf. The group exhibition therefore showcases a broad curatorial perspective of international contemporary photography and offers the visitor a snap-shot of each artist.

Since its invention in the nineteenth century, photography as a technique and tool of expression has both challenged and inspired artists. This exhibition reveals how many contemporary artists are re-examining photography by incorporating elements into collage, video, film, installation or sculpture to offer new formal readings of the image informed by photography.

Some of the works within How Soon is Now explore personal and intimate investigations by the artists, some filter and document everyday experiences or words into something unexpected, and some artists have given photographs a material presence as physical objects creating a more detached, objective aesthetic.

Many of the artists examine issues of perception, fiction and truth, or legitimize previously illegitimate art forms such as amateur photography or the photographic album. Other artists reference styles and genres of art, photography and popular culture in their work.

The exhibition also includes the installation Fotografias by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss displaying nearly 400 photographs of paintings found in fairgrounds and amusement parks displayed on a series of tables and the wall. Their intimate scale and somber tonality turn the colorfulness of the painted image of banal entertainment not only into photography, but also into worlds of personal fantasies, darkness and humor.

The exhibition was conceived to present works for two pre-eminent photography awards - The Discovery Award and the LUMA Award 2010. Each artist was chosen because their work had already been internationally recognized and is an important voice in the contemporary field of art.