Susanne JunkerSO WHAT!

05.04.–06.07.2025 at Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst im Glaspalast | H1

The Augsburg artists' association “Die Ecke” e.V. is presenting the solo exhibition SO WHAT! in collaboration with the art collections and museums of the city of Augsburg. The survey exhibition covers 30 years of artistic work by the artist and photographer Susanne Junker. On display are her most important works from her beginnings in the 1990s to new works that have never been shown before.

‘I worked as a model in the early 1990s. It was the glamourous time of supermodels selling their perfect looks. This obsession with beauty was dictated by the fashion industry and perpetuated the dominance of the male gaze in culture. These rigid norms were unbearable for me and led me to transform myself from object to author by becoming an artist.’
(Susanne Junker)

Beyond the photo set, the then young artist began to turn the camera on herself again and again: the self-portrait was her weapon. In this way, Susanne Junker fought to reclaim her own identity and confronted the media staging in which she herself actively participated as a model: Who are we? What is our value? What does beauty mean? - The relentless confrontation with these issues becomes her programme: she relentlessly records her thoughts and reflections photographically, stylising them into motifs that constantly recur and constantly reinterpret these questions, making the work a mirror of our globalised society.

As a keen observer of pop culture and social media, Susanne Junker explores the concept of identity in a visually dominated world and criticises the representation of women in the media. The artist's body and face often become a tool for questioning ideals of beauty, gender roles and age discrimination: the exposed body is posterised with words, phrases and slogans, and shaped into a statement through clothing, make-up and accessories. This self-appropriation is the key to a decidedly feminist perspective.

Susanne Junker, born near Augsburg, moved to Paris at the age of 17. After living in New York and Shanghai, she returned to Paris, where she has lived and worked for many years. From 2008 to 2013, she founded and directed ‘stageBACK’, an artist-run space for experimental projects in Shanghai, China. From 2018 to 2022, she taught photography courses entitled ‘Re-searching Identity’ as a guest lecturer at the China Academy of Art (CAA) in Shanghai and Hangzhou, China. Junker's photographic, video and installation works are characterised by the different life circumstances she has been exposed to and encourage us to participate, but also to take a stand ourselves.

The exhibition is curated by Chiara Padovan.
A catalogue of the exhibition will be published with the support of the Arno Buchegger Foundation.

The exhibition is a co-operation with the Künstlervereinigung Augsburg „Die Ecke“ e.V.

We cordially invite you to the opening to all interested parties on Friday, 4 April 2025, at 6 pm!

For the ID-Identity project, people from all over the world applied make-up in front of Susanne Junker's camera without knowing what they were doing, without a mirror and without fear of the result. The result is photographs that do not conform to the norm we know from advertising posters: Not retouched, not rigid, not promotional. 
Susanne Junker will continue this series in Augsburg and photograph 12 participants in the exhibition at the Glaspalast on 15 and 16 April 2025. The 12 portraits from this shoot will then be on display in the exhibition as part of the ID-Identity series.

Interested parties can apply by email: galerie@die-ecke.de 
If there are too many applications, the decision will be made by lot.