UCCA DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD
World-renowned photographer Peter Lindbergh launched the 1980s global supermodel phenomenon with his iconic black-and-white images of Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz and other natural beauties in the pages of Vogue and Stern . But it is the inherent tension and cinematic suspense of his work that moves it into the realm of art and propels the photographer into a new chapter of his life and career.
The Unknown is not a Lindbergh retrospective, but rather, a body of work specifically assembled to mark his first experience with China. A Chinese episode destined for the giant silver screen, it speaks of the intriguing and mystifying adventure of daily life in our turbulent contemporary world, and of the vast experience and imagination that allows the artist to create an adventure rich with timeless and "fashion-less" visual references: a space where 1950s Hollywood glamour mixes eloquently with the German cinema of Fritz Lang and futuristic science fiction.
Lindbergh reverses the history of photography with silver prints and film posters plastered from floor to ceiling, images that burst from the walls, invade our space and inhabit our consciousness. The Unknown is a gigantic remix without order or chronology, a visual journey through decades of images, a story sure to be continued in future episodes, through other unknown territories.
The Unknown takes a step beyond Lindbergh's recent cinematic series Invasion , a flash of everyday reality filled with enigmas, unpredictable events and risk. His powerful images capture our contemporary angst and hint at the danger, adventure, beauty or hope that might lie in store, while suggesting that what happens next is up to us...all of us.
- Jérôme Sans, UCCA Director
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Creativity is the basis of self-expression. Why are some people supposedly more creative than others, and why can't others open themselves up enough to be able to express who they are?
Creation is the birth of something, and something cannot come from nothing. When someone creates something – a painting, a poem, a photograph – the creativity comes from an idea, from a feeling, from emotion, or from a combination of ideas, feelings and emotions that are somehow 'reborn' from all our experiences and perspectives.
Creativity is the desire to express ourselves. To formulate these expressions, we have to draw from our reservoir of experience, dreams, desires and experimentation and mix together what was, what is, and what could be... I don't think you can learn it; it is rather something that evolves. Your perception of everything in your life fills up this reservoir.
Some people are drawn to create and express themselves, others are drawn to reflect, to analyze. But in the end, they all could be creative if they had the desire to explore the way in which they are integrated in the world of their experiences. Because creativity is really a rebirth, a true tone we feel for ourselves and for our world. Then our work becomes a real part of who we are. Maybe all this is a question of how deep we are willing to go...
- by Peter Lindbergh
with Lily, New York, June 1996.
