TALK: "The Historical Conditions of Existence - Mark Sealy MBE on Stuart Hall and the Photographic Moment"

As Director of Autograph (Association of Black Photographers) since 1991, curator and cultural historian Mark Sealy has initiated the production of numerous publications, exhibitions and residency projects, commissioning photographers and filmmakers worldwide. Most recently, he commissioned “The Unfinished Conversation” a film-work by John Akomfrah on the political life of Professor Stuart Hall, a long-time colleague, mentor and friend. In 2002, Mark Sealy published the book “Different” (Phaidon Press in partnership with Professor Stuart Hall), which focuses on photography and identity. In his talk, Mark Sealy will discuss his working relationship with Stuart Hall and the politics of difference in the UK that led to their development in 2002 of the capital building project (Rivington Place), designed by architect David Adjaye, which opened in 2007 and was developed in partnership with the Institute of International Visual Arts. As a curator with a special interest in photography and its relationship to social change, identity politics and human rights, Sealy analyses conflicting readings of vernacular photographs from migrant and marginalised communities. Forcing open the dominant cultural representations of the Other, he proposes new interpretations of that which has been rendered absent or repressed. Different experiences with photography can show that once an opening has been achieved new narratives can be forged, different voices heard, different images celebrated and put to work for a different social purpose. At the core of The Autograph ABP project is the aim to build cultural platforms in which ‘The Democratic Promise of Photography’ can be realised by those who work from culturally different perspective and places. Thursday, 5th June, 7pm In English €5 / reduced €2.50 Weltkulturen Museum / Weltkulturen Labor Schaumainkai 37 Frankfurt a.M. www.weltkulturenmuseum.de