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Ich bin hier. Europäische Gesichter
Start date: May 1, 2015, End date: Apr 30, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Since June 2011, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, the National Galleries of Scotland ind Edinburgh and the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe are planning long term cooperation. The first exhibition organised in collaboration will be dedicated to the self-portrait. Not only is the self-portrait a very attractive type of picture, revealing a lot of information about the artist, his self-esteem, and his historical and social environment. Showing oneself is nowadays more up-to-date than ever: The "selfie", made possible through the massive use of smartphones worlwide, has become one of the greatest phenomenas of the digital age. During the 15th century, the epoch making ideas of humanism created the conditions for venturing to draw or paint oneself, producing a new consciousness of ones own value and importance. This phenomenon is to the core a very European one and required a certain freedom of the individual to be able to question his identity. After all, it was this new individual identity which over the centuries paved the way for enlightment and human rights. Selfies however seem to be the contrary: Produced as acts of self-assurance, they vanish in global clouds, resesemble each other, and almost seem to deny individuality, dissolving the individual in the mass. "I am here. European Faces" is the title of an exhibition combining ca. 100 self-portraits (paintings and works on paper) from the distinguished collections of three old-established European museums and shown successively in Karlsruhe, Lyon and Edinburgh. From the 16th century onwards, it will represent the development of artistic self assurance in Europe, ending with a newly developed machine for selfies of the visitors, digitally composed of innumerable self-portraits of previous guests and projected alternating inside the exhibition. Amongst other activities, a joint homepage, social media performances and workshops of art students with young visitors are planned in every exhibition.
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