Out of Focus. Leonore Mau und Haiti. Eine Ausstellung von U5
In the organizer's words:
"Sa w wè a se pa sa" (What you see is not what it is. Haitian proverb)
Can the work of a German photographer convey an image of Haiti that is not characterized by stereotypes? The exhibition "Out of Focus" is an attempt to make the complexity of Haiti visible in a multimedia, sensual environment and to show the complexity of the work of Leonore Mau (1916-2013).
Leonore Mau traveled to Haiti in the 1970s during the dictatorship of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. She traveled together with the writer Hubert Fichte (1935-1986). The trip was part of a long-term research project on Afro-diasporic religions. The project took Mau and Fichte to Benin, Brazil, Grenada, Senegal and Venezuela, among other places. Mau's photographs were published in the photo books "Xango" (1976) and "Petersilie" (1980) and in travel reports in many German magazines. The majority, however, have neither been published nor shown in exhibitions and are in the photographer's estate at the bpk picture agency in Berlin.
While Mouse's photo books also contain photographs that confirm the prejudiced image of Haiti and Vodou, her extensive estate contains images in which everyday life, community, dictatorship, spirituality and tourism coexist. However, looking at the images also raises questions about ethics, representation, exoticism and extractivism. How can we look at them without reproducing power relations? It is about dealing with such photographs in a way that allows for ambivalence and in which criticism and beauty are not contradictory.
Together with the cultural anthropologist and artist Gina Athena Ulysse, the artist and filmmaker Madafi Pierre, the Houngan (priest), musician and general director of the Bureau National d'Ethnologie in Port-au-Prince Erol Josué and other people and their different expertise, the exhibition develops a dialogical, critical and decolonial approach to mouse images.
The exhibition at the Lenbachhaus is an artistic development of the research project "Out of Focus" by Dora Imhof and the artists' collective U5 at the University of Zurich. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive publication in four languages, edited by Dora Imhof, Gina Athena Ulysse and U5 and published by Hatje Cantz.
Public program
The public program is a central part of the exhibition "Out of Focus". It gives space to the different perspectives on the photographs and the dialog on how to deal with them. In the experimental discussion format "Relational Viewing", developed especially for the exhibition, the focus is on viewing and showing photographs.
November 4, 2025
17.30-18.30 Relational Viewing with Dora Imhof, U5 and guests
7.30 pm Performance by Erol Josué
January 16, 2026
17.30-18.30 Relational Viewing with Dora Imhof, U5 and guests
19.30 Reading Kettly Mars
20.30 Film screening Nathalie David, "This photographer's name is Leonore Mau" (2005)
February 13, 2026
17.30-18.30 Relational Viewing with Dora Imhof, U5 and guests
19.30 Lecture by Kyrah Malika Daniels
20.30 Performance by Gina Athena Ulysse
In cooperation with the S. Fischer Foundation and the bpk picture agency, Berlin
With the kind support of Förderverein Lenbachhaus e.V., Pro Helvetia, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
This content has been machine translated.Price information:
6,00 € (reduced) / 10,00 €
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