The workshop in budapest was the opportunity for to POC members to exhibit in Budapest:
Mathieu Bernard-Reymond / Studio Gallery
Yann Gross / Lumen Gallery
2008. 10. 07 – 10.29

There was also a public presentation introducing POC at Mai Manó Hungarian House of Photography

Our partners for this workshop were:

Lumen Gallery
Mikszáth Kálmán tér 2.
1088 Budapest
Opening hours: Tue-Sat: 8.30-19, Sat: 10-17
www.photolumen.hu

SYAA – Studio Gallery
Rottenbiller u. 35.
1077 Budapest
Opening hours: Tue-Fri: 16-20, Sat: 12-16
studio.c3.hu

Mai Manó – Hungarain House of Photography
Nagymezõ utca 20.
1065 Budapest
www.maimano.hu

Here is a quotation of the presentation for this workshop detailing what happened:

"The POC workshop (http://pocproject.com) will take place in Budapest, 7. October -14. October, 2008. For this occasion, two exhibitions will be launched on the opening day, one in Lumen Gallery (www.photolumen.hu) and one in Studio Gallery (studio.c3.hu) will be taking place. Aditionally a public POC presentation will be held at Mai Mano, Hungarian House of Photography.

About POC:
Created in Rouen in 2002 at the initiative of French photographer Charles Fréger, "POC" - standing for "Piece of Cake" - comprises twenty or so young European artists whose preferred medium is photography. The group's raison d'?tre is to enable the artists to interact as they create, produce and distribute their works. POC is like a permanent workshop that functions at a virtual level by making full use of the web, and at a tangible level by way of Europe-wide meetings between the artists co-opted from the original nucleus: Charles Fréger (France), as well as Goetz Diergarten (Germany), Loan Nguyen and Mathieu Bernard-Reymond (Switzerland). This nucleus of artists expands from time to time, and the network of artists, each of whom forms part of the contemporary current of "photography as art," deals with the question of documentary recording and the relationship between photography and reality in biographical, fictional and serial modes that go beyond simple photographic reporting as proof of reality.

Yann Gross (Ch): Lavina
Lumen Gallery
Switzerland built his national identity through the iconography of its mountains. These are shown as a quiet paradise, where tourists can take advantage of the nature, without any specific knowledge required. But in reality, to make this dream come true and accessible, the environnement has to be controled and shaped as much as possible. Yann Gross has been working now for 5 years with guides and researchers who trigger avalanches with dynamite to avoid accidents in ski resorts. The purpose of these pictures is to show how powerful and majestic an avalanche can be. It almost becomes an abstract scene, as if the snow of the avalanche was covering part of a blank canvas.
www.yanngross.com

Mathieu Bernard-Reymond (Fr) - Monument / TV
Studio Gallery
The issue in Mathieu Bernard-Reymond's pictures is landscape and the way people try to exist in a world of perpetual change. We travel fast, build fast, live fast, linked to the world by a strange bond of speed and illusion. The people in his photographs are presented as visitors, temporary figures – not residents. When he takes photographs he tries to expose the paradox of the image in its resemblance to the paradox of "our" existence now: a perpetual back and forth between the imaginary and the real, a vital yet doomed-in-advance striving to know where we are. Mathieu Bernard Reymond exhibits his series entitled "monument" and "tv" in the space of the Studio Gallery.
www.monsieurmathieu.com

Installation views in the Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal.

   

 

 

 

Download the article in the Fotomuseum Magazine

POC workshop at the Antwerp FotoMuseum.
From February 27th – 4th March
Patricia Almeida, member
Mathieu Bernard‐Reymond, member of the board, secretary
Bert Danckaert, member, organized the workshop
Jasper de Beijer, member
Goetz Diergarten, member of the board, president
Charles Fréger, member of the board, treasurer
Marina Gadonneix, member
Peter Granser, member of the board
Matthias Koch, member
Birgitta Lund, member
Loan Nguyen, member of the board, sec. treasurer
Johannes Romppanen, member
Sandra Stein, member
Martin Klimas, candidate to membership
Flemming Ove Bech, Charles' assistant

Day one:

• General discussion on the running project ‘Alone Together’ and the future of POC.

Day two:

• Decision to start a new project ‘Chinese Restaurant’ on cultural identity in the globalized world.
• Meeting with students of the Antwerp Academy (dep. Photography)
• Presentation by Martin Klimas on his photographs.

Day three:

Meeting with curators, gallerists and journalists. with:
• Inge Henneman, curator from the Antwerp Photomuseum
• Sean Mc Bride, Mc Bride Fine Arts, Antwerp
• Frank Vanhaecke, curator of photography at Bozar, (Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels)
• Herman Van Den Boom, Hex Gallery, Heks, Limburg
• Roger Szmulewicz, 51 Fine Art Photography, Antwerp
• Edith Doove, ED Projects, Antwerp
• Stef Van Bellingen, free lance curator, art historian.

…and others

Many of us made good contacts. Frank Vanhaecke offered us to have an exhibition at Bozar for the Summer of Photography (2008).
After the private view, the photo museum offered us a reception.

Day four:
Lectures by a selection of POC members at the auditorium of the Antwerp Photomuseum:
Götz Diergarten
Bert Danckaert
Jasper De Beijer
Charles Fréger
Mathieu Bernard‐Reymond
Peter Granser

Farewell dinner, bowling (!) and (too) many drinks.

Day five:
Those who were still around had breakfast together.
A few of us ended up in a bar for a final drink.

It was intense, it’s always sad to say goodbye.

     

   

PDF Document : Alone together exhibition, English

06.2006 : Galerie Nouvelles images, LaHaye, Netherlands
01.26.2007 - 04.04.2007 : Pont-en-Royan, France
06.20.2007 - 06.24.2007 : F/Stop international photography festival, Leipzig, Germany
08.24.2007 - 10.05.2007 : Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland

No info available

Marina Gadonneix

     

     

     

Thomas Humery

     

     

     

No info available

Many POC members established great contacts during this workshop.
This was also a moment for great debates about what POC will become in next years and what would be next workshops.
Here are some snapshots by Peter Granser in Forum fur Photographie during hanging and exhibition.

forum für zeitgenössische fotografie, 7-13 September 2004

POC-Workshopat Forum für Fotografie and at gallery Martin Kudlek

List of participants: Patricia Almeida (F / Portugal); Mathieu Bernard-Reymond (F / Switzerland / France); François Cavelier (F / France); Götz Diergarten (F / Germany); Charles Fréger (F / France); Marina Gadonneix (F / France); Peter Granser (F / Germany / Austria ); Stephen Hughes (F / England ); Thomas Humery (F / France); Matthias Koch (F / Germany ); Athanasia Kyriakakos (V/P Greece ); Janne Lehtinen (F / Finland); Ville Lenkkeri (F / Finland); Loan Nguyen (F / Switzerland ); Rachel Reupke (V / England ); Johannes Romppanen (F / Finland ); Morgan Showalter (V / Greece / Amerika); Sandra Stein (F / Germany ); Joël Tettamanti (F / Switzerland ); Adam Thompson (F / England ); (F – Photography / V – Video / P – Performance )

Under the label POC (Piece of Cake) gathers a European platform of photographers and video-artists created in june 2002. Whilst trying to spot stylistic affinities between the work of its members may prove in vain, a common attachment to the world, a shared inquiry about man's place in his environment will immediately strike any attentive eye. POCmembers  live and work in Finland , Portugal , Greece , Great Britain , Switzerland , Germany , France and Spain. The tight network thus constituted opens-up new perspectives for the individual artists : collaborations, fruitful exchange of points of view, a wider scope of vision, visibility in foreign places and exposure to foreign publics.

After the group's founding workshop in Rouen (2002), the twenty or so members of POC have met in Madrid, Cologne or Athens for artistic residences, workshops and joint ventures, chances all for engaging in new thought processes, starting new bodies of work, and for setting a foot on the different artistic scenes.

The year that followed its creation,POC opened a publishing house. Five books, Gouville , Bleus de travail , Jouko Lethola's Finlandia , No Parking , and Rikishi , all with a wide european distribution, launched POC 's monographic collection. A thematic book series and a DVD collection complete POC 's publishing activities.

“POC in Town”: 07 th -13 th September, 2004:   Tuesday, 7 th : Day of arrival / exhibition's set up at “FORUM“ and at the gallery Martin Kudlek.
Wednesday, 8 th : at 6p.m.: “ Press-Preview “ of “POC in Town”:
Forum für Fotografie” (until 12 th + 01 st and 2 nd October, 2004)
Gallery Martin Kudlek (from 10 th to 25 th Sept.)
Thursday, 9 th : 10a.m. – 6p.m.: “Meeting 1” at the “FORUM”:
(art dealers and collectors – by request)
Friday, 10 th : 10a.m. – 6p.m: “Meeting 2” at the “FORUM”:
curators, institutions, critics, etc. (by request)
6p.m.: Private view “POC in town” at gallery M. Kudlek
Saturday, 11 th : opening hours: 11a.m. – 8p.m.
2p.m.: Public speech of Markus Schaden in the “FORUM”:
“The photobook – past and future”
4p.m.: Private view in the “FORUM”
Sunday, 12 th : 11a.m – 8p.m.: Talks, portfolio view, discussions in the “FORUM” with POC-members
4p.m.: Panel: “Solitude or Network”
Monday, 13 th : Decomposition and departure of POC-members
Saturday 1st & Sunday 2 nd October:
Part of International Photoscene Cologne, 2004 : Videoscreening / slightshow and summary of POC-workshop from 07 th .-13t h September and presentation of new POC-editions / books of Patricia Almeida, Charles Fréger (October 2004) and others.

Forum für Fotografie
Schönhauser Strasse 8
50676 Köln
Tel. +49-221-340 18 30
www.forum-fotografie.info
mail@forum-fotografie.info

Internationale Photoszene Köln
Tel. +49.221.4972663
ghueppeler@t-online.de
www.photoszene.de

Galerie Martin Kudlek
Schaafenstrasse 8
+49 221 729667
www.martinkudlek.de
galerie@martinkudlek.de

PRESENTATION (by Luz Gyalui) (may 2004)

During PhotoEspaña 2004, 16 members of POC PROJECT will carry out a "photographic rally", lasting one week. The objective of this activity is to record their personal vision of Madrid and the Festival on photographic, digital and video supports.
The results will be exhibited in a daily basis in the lobby of the Residencia de Estudiantes and will also be available in www.phedigital.com and www.pocproject.com.
Furthermore, the Santa Ana Projections porgramme will include a selection of recent works by this group's artists on Saturday, June 12th.

POC members participating in this project will meet at the beginning of the week and right before leaving on Saturday, June 19th with the PHE artistic director Horacio Fernández, who will lay out his approach of the topic picked for the 2005 edition of this photographic festival: "suburban". This initial talk will enable POC members to introduce their work in person to Horacio Fernández. The final talk will be less theoretical and all POC members will present their resulting work to the artistic director of the festival. Next year's possible exhibition of POC in Madrid will be discussed at both meetings.

On Wednesday, June 16th will take place "A day with POC", young photographers, fine arts students and aficionados will be invited to meet with POC members in the Residencia de Estudiantes. The audience and POC will sit around a joined breakfast and will talk about their experiences within the international scene of contemporary photography. Each person of the audience will be given the chance to accompany a POC member on his/her day work.

Assistants and technical material will be provided by the PHE festival for the POC members to work during a whole week on an intense schedule paced by the daily deadline to turn in films to the laboratory.

Charles Fréger

Joel Tettamanti

Thomas Humery

M.Bernard-Reymond

François Cavelier

Loan Nguyen

 

Daily report

2004-06-11: First POC members arrived in Madrid.
2004-06-12: POCs discovered the beautiful "Residencia de Estudiantes" where all members will stay during the workshop. Some members started to work.
2004-06-13: Everybody has finally arrived. All the participating members had a meeting with Luz Gyalui, our link with Photoespaña and Pablo Berastegui, director of the festival.
2004-06-14: A working day for everybody. POCs continued to take pictures or to film all over Madrid. Some of us met in the working room set up especially for us. With computers scanner and prrinters.
2004-06-15: Processed films from the first days of shooting are comming back from the lab. Our goal is top produce some sketches and semi-fnal prints during this week.
2004-06-16: POC is working hard to get both production and results during the week. In the end of the workshop our diary on the wall will be presented to visitors. Here is the actual state of this wall.
2004-06-17: Printers worked during all the opening time of the Atelier. While some members are gone outside to work, the wall slowly changes and grows.
2004-06-18: Our last complete day of work. Things went very fast!! In the image on the right, note that our president, keeps working even during the night events..
2004-06-19: Today was the last official day of POC in madrid. Members started to get back home progressively. For some of us it is time for a well diserved spanish siesta.

 

ABOUT THE RESULTS OF THIS WORKSHOP (by Charles Fréger)

Seems the production of these last days has been really prolific:

Joël Tettamanti focused on landscapes and city architecture, but also worked in parallel with Marina Gadonneix in Xanadu (an indoor ski slope).

Goetz Diergarten took a look back in the history, producing with an old 6x9 camera the "tourist" images his grand-father could have produced.

Still in a point of view of the city, Patricia Almeida continued her locations series showing how people move in the city, how they follow the rules of the urban architecture.

Loan N'Guyen preferred a poetic point of view integrating a certain kind of surrealistic images mixing self-stories and unusual points of view.

Paco Gomez, living in Madrid, tried to make us imagine that Spiderman, famous superhero, had some time in Madrid... Spidey on Madrid roofs... Why not? We are under influences, watched series on TV... But here, the superhero fight against terrorism. Let's laugh!

Sandra Stein "snapshots" the citizens, the atmosphere they live in, in the most absurd situations. She finds around people belonging to her world, a sort of universal community of absurd individual stories.

Thomas understood it well when he finally decided to photograph in a sensual and confident series a young Spanish woman, Marta, waking up, having a shower, doing her hair...

François met the characters of his fake but usual situations... young students talking in the public garden, everyday life of european teenagers, consuming leisure and city hobbies.

Women smoking a cigarette, watching Morgan Showalter's camera somehow all becomes universal... We all did it... like these teenagers catching each other and kissing longingly. We all look the same somehow, but not so...

Charles Fréger still feeds this quest, shooting and shooting again the portraits of people wearing uniforms: Guardia civile -Cops- watch us with a "no smile" attitude.

Ville Lenkkeri is not the first one to shoot with large films in museums... but the way he's photographing the special atmosphere of this kind of place and the attitude of people staying there - visitors or guards - always creates that dialectic: How we are in our society and how finally we try, through museums, to explain our society...Ville also visited the Sunday corrida and the school of bull fighters.

Mathieu walked in the suburbs... close to the limit of the town... empty space in constructions, "intervalles" series in public gardens. People walking in the frame become the actors of conceptual story where they'll appear one, two, three of four times following the desire of apparition of a "disparition" of the artist.

Rachel walked a lot too, but found another territory through the point of view of a cable car. The video she'll obtain after some weeks of modification, mixing realism and accomodation of different landscapes, will deal with painting. Who other video artist is finally so close of photography and painting at the same time?

Matthias Koch could not make his usual "fire truck" landscapes and decided with a series of portraits of the POC members to recreate artificially the two bases of a close up portrait: a face and a background. The background, result of a "out of focus" shooting different places in Madrid will be stuck behind a close-up of each member made outside, in front of a grey background with natural light. Quite conceptual, this research is also a way to present a group of european artist trying to find solutions and artistic contruction is a short trip to Madrid.