Press : Presse fotolabor-01

The artistic possibilities contained in embarrassment are shown in an exhibition by Erik Kessels and students from ECAL/University of Art and Design, Lausanne, from the 20^th of November 2015 to the 10^th of January 2016.

“It’s okay to embarrass yourself” says Erik Kessels, artist, curator of The Embarrassment Show as well as lecturer and artistic director of the international advertising agency Kesselskramer. Even more: He recommends embarrassing ourselves. “Without it we will remain in our old comfort zone – we won’t be embarrassed, but we also won’t improve. In other words: we remain boring.”

For a workshop, Erik Kessels made photography students from ECAL/University of Art and Design, Lausanne, explore their personal limits. “Because they embarrass themselves, they are often able to share personal and often touchy and risky stories. It makes them creative”, according to Kessel’s approach. It enables prospective artists to re-discover photography. “And they get to a level of photography that they would not have reached without embarrassing themselves.”

The results of this process will be on show at the “ftlbr #01 – The Embarrassment Show”, at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf from the 20^th of November 2015 to the 10^th of January 2016. This “Ego Downsizing” forms a deliberate contrast to the “Ego Boosting” which stands at the centre of the current exhibition EGO UPDATE. The Future of Digital Identity, which will be on until the 17^th of January. The entry to both exhibitions is 6 Euros (3,50 for concessions and 1 Euro for children and young people up to the age of 17).