Life World is a selection of photographic works from the Collection of Isabel and Agustín Coppel, curated by Tanya Barson. Inspired by the writings of Czech-Brazilian philosopher Vilém Flusser (1920-1991), the exhibition seeks to explore the notion of a philosophy of photography or, as Flusser put it, to ‘contribute to a discussion about the subject “photography” in a philosophical spirit.’ It aims to show how photography became a key tool for the development of human consciousness and also reflects on the question of the philosophical status of photography at the moment when Flusser was writing, beginning with his book ‘Towards a Philosophy of Photography’(1983) and continuing with ‘Into the Universe of Technical Images’ (1985), a moment when the transition from photography as an object to photography in the digital age was beginning to occur. The exhibition draws from and examines the rich spectrum of photography included in the Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection and reviews its’ picturing of the life-world in which we all exist.

For this exhibition this idea of being, and consciousness, is examined through three notions drawn from philosophical (phenomenological) thinking, namely the social world (mitwelt), the environment or world-around (umwelt) and the inner or own world (eigenwelt). Thus, organised into three principal groupings of images, this exhibition examines the role that photography has played in communicating what it means to exist, how we exist with others and how we develop an independent existence and a sense of our own self; in each, photography acts as a way to reflect on the challenge of being-in-the-world. As a preface to these three sections, there is a selected group of works that together question, “What is a photograph?”, addressing some of the characteristics of photography that Flusser proposes in his statements about photography and its philosophical status.

• Curatorship: Tanya Barson
• Artists: Berenice Abbott, Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Ader, Doug Aitken, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Francis Alÿs, Diane Arbus, Ursula Arnold, Richard Avedon, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Sophie Calle, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Larry Clark, Edmund Collein, Bruce Davidson, Phillip-Lorca DiCorcia, Rineke Dijkstra, Jim Dow, William Eggleston, Tracey Emin, Walker Evans, Valie Export, Harun Farocki, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Carlos Garaicoa, Alberto García-Alix, Héctor García, Anna Gaskell, Nan Goldin, Félix González-Torres, Dan Graham, Sigurdur Gumundsson, Jitka Hanzlová, Bill Henson, Candida Höfer, Kati Horna, Graciela Iturbide, Seydou Keïta, Julius Koller, Zoe Leonard, Helen Levitt, Cristina Lucas, Tuomo Manninen, Ángel Marcos, Teresa Margolles, Mary Ellen Mark, Gordon Matta Clark, Ana Mendieta, Enrique Metinides, Ryuji Miyamoto, Tina Modotti, Lázsló Moholy-Nagy,  Zwelethu Mthethwa, Shirin Neshat, Rivane Neuenschwander, Arnold Newman, Kiyoshi Niiyama, Gabriel Orozco, Damián Ortega, Bill Owens, Esteban Pastorino, Irving Penn, Martha María Pérez Bravo, Bernard Plossu, Albert Renger-Patzch, Miguel Rio Branco, Herb Ritts, Daniela Rosell, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Sebastiao Salgado, August Sander, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Aaron Siskind, Melanie Smith, Superflex, Simon Starling, Thomas Struth, Diana Thater, Wolfgang Tillmans, Ed Van Der Elsken, Massimo Vitali, Annika Von Hausswolff, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Edward Weston, Mariana Yampolsky, Willy Zielke.
• Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy from February 27, 2017 to April 25, 2017
• Read Tanya Barson’s essay here: The Gesture of Photography: An Introduction