The Rediscovery of the World

This publication marks an important moment, both in the 14-year existence of Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, as well as in the now 348-year life of the two buildings at Keizersgracht 399/401. It is the moment at which the museum’s expansion shows its first-ever exhibition in the new, double-sized building. A good occasion therefore to look both backwards and forwards. The Rediscovery of the World is an exhibition of the very newest work by 14 young Dutch artists (aged between about 25 and 40). They represent today’s generation, that grew up in a visual culture that is inherent to today’s modernity. It is precisely photographers who are formulating a reaction to the contemporary culture of invisibility and virtuality, by looking at it in new and open ways. What, these days, can still be said to be real and important? This issue is very relevant to photographers because the medium registers exactly what there is to be seen. So what exactly is it that we see? This question looms large in the shared mindset of The rediscovery of the world. If anything characterizes the artistic idiom of photography today it is a burning curiosity: a desire to visualize what lies behind the visible, and to reveal the component parts of which our perception is actually made. It is notable that in this artistic research, photography seems to be going back to basics: to the camera, the light- sensitive material, and the photograph itself.