Ricarda Roggan

Ricarda Roggan: The foreign perspective and the limits of photography

Award winning photographer Ricarda Roggan from Leipzig will hold a lecture on the affinity of archaeology and photography and point out the limits set to the art of photography on 9 December 2010, 19.30 hrs at the Goethe-Zentrum Nicosia.

Ricarda Roggan’s work has been frequently described as the work of an archaeologist who with great care and precision tries to free her objects from their context to “unearth” them like an antiquity from their soil in order to reveal their beingness and this to preserve them. Contrary to the archaeologist she does not preserve precious ancient objects, but objects from everyday life, from mass culture. After “discovering” them she has to deconstruct them just as the archaeologist frees his finds from soil and dust. She then reconstructs them in her studio in the “white cube” which she developed specifically for this purpose to reveal the essential character of her objects. The photography refers to something that undoubtedly existed, but is not present any longer, it freezes the past, gives it a stage.

Archaeology is a science aiming at informing on the past, whereas the art of photography transcends reality. It is Ricarda Roggan’s intention to bring objects to life, to make them speak, we, the observers listen to them, but we see their past through our own eyes. Their authentic past will remain a mystery to us. This mystery seems to motivate Roggan’s work in Cyprus, entitled “Sedimente”. Her photographs distinguish themselves by precision and quality, documenting interesting soil sediments of specific areas. However, the same soil, boulders and gravel are witnesses of 10 000 years of history since the settlements of the first human beings on the island. In which way can she succeed in revealing this mystery?

Ricarda Roggan will close her lecture referring to the first German expeditions to Cyprus by two fascinating personalities, both from Leipzig like her: Julius Siegismund, a young expert in deciphering ancient inscriptions, buried in Limassol, and Max Ohnefalsch-Richter who used early photography during decades of archaeological excavations in Cyprus.

The Lecturer was born in Dresden in 1972. She studied photography at the Academy for Graphic Design and Book Art in Leipzig where she obtained the Master’s Degree in 2004. From the Royal College of Art in London she obtained the Master of Arts in 2005. She received various rewards and scholarships and did nine solo exhibitions as well as numerous group exhibitions. Her next solo exhibition will take her to Koichi Andi Gallery in Tokyo, Japan.

The lecture will be held in English.

A discussion will follow.

Image courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin