Roger Ballen – Animal Absurdity ,
Renato D’Agostin – Evoluzione analogica
Exhibition period:04.06.–20.06.26
Opening hours: daily 10:00–16:00
Roger Ballen is considered one of the most influential photographers of our time. Since the 1980s, he has lived and worked in Johannesburg. He became internationally known for his haunting black-and-white works situated between documentary photography, staging, and psychological imagery. His works have been exhibited worldwide, received numerous awards, and are part of collections including Tate Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie.
The exhibition at LUMEN Museum of Mountain Photography and the ECK Museum of Art as part of the ANALOGUE Photo.Festival presents a thematic cross-section of Ballen’s long-standing body of work, in which animals occupy a central role. In series such as Outland and Asylum of the Birds, animals do not appear merely as subjects, but as essential components of psychological and existential image worlds. Humans and animals encounter one another in confined, often neglected spaces where the boundaries between the human and the animal increasingly dissolve. These unsettling compositions create an atmosphere of the subconscious and confront viewers with questions of isolation, control, and the fragility of human existence.
www.rogerballen.com / instagram.com/rogerballen
Renato D'Agostin is an Italian photographer known for his high-contrast black-and-white works and silver gelatin prints. After periods in Milan and New York City, he worked as an assistant to Ralph Gibson and developed a distinctive visual language situated between abstraction, architecture, and urban perception. His works have been exhibited internationally and are included in collections such as the International Center of Photography and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
With Evoluzione Analogica, Renato D’Agostin transforms the exhibition space into a walk-in darkroom, offering a rare insight into the analogue process behind photographic production. Large-format prints appear raw, unframed, and marked by traces of the darkroom — suspended with magnets as though freshly developed and not yet finalized. Contact sheets, book dummies, working materials, and video projections turn the space simultaneously into a studio, laboratory, and exhibition environment.
