In collaboration with Damiani, publisher of the new edition of Roger Ballen's book Boyhood
One of the most influential and important photographic artists of the 21st century, Roger Ballen’s photographs span over forty years. His strange and extreme works confront the viewers and challenge them to come with him on a journey into their own minds as he explores the deeper recesses of his own. Ballen describes his works as existential psychodramas that touch the subconscious mind and evoke the underbelly of the human condition. They aim to break through the repressed thoughts and feelings by engaging in themes of chaos and order, madness or unruly states of being, the human relationship to the animal world, life and death, universal archetypes of the psyche and experiences of otherness.
Throughout the years, he has expanded his repertoire and extended his visual language. By integrating drawing into his photographic and video works, Roger Ballen has not only contributed to the development of new modes of artistic expression, but equally has made a powerful commentary about the human condition and its creative potential.
In his Artist talk at MAST, Roger Ballen will retrace the story of his artistic practice that brought to the distinctive style of his documentary fiction.
Roger Ballen is an American artist living in Johannesburg, South Africa, and working in its surrounds since the 1970s. His oeuvre, which spans over four decades, began with the documentary photography field but evolved into the creation of distinctive fictionalized realms that also integrate the mediums of film, installation, theatre, sculpture, painting and drawing. Marginalized people, animals, found objects, wires and childlike drawings inhabit the unlocatable worlds presented in Ballen's artworks. With over 25 books published internationally, among which the new edition of his first book Boyhood, dozens of exhibitions throughout his career and works present in more than 50 of the most important museum collections, Roger Ballen is one of the most interesting photographic artists of our time. In 2018, he founded the Inside Out Centre for the Arts to exhibit, educate and promote art related to the African continent, using photography, videos, installation, drawing and painting. Roger Ballen is one of the artists representing South Africa at the Venice Biennale Arte 2022.
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