Parallel Lines: Sarah Girard
© Karla Hiraldo Voleau. A Man in Public Space.
Federica Belli The language of photography is still among the most contemporary ones, notwithstanding the diffusion of digital art and AR. Which factors make photography such a relevant medium in our time?
Sarah Girard Photography is a very broad medium, in opposition to other media, being present both in daily life and in the professional field. We all consume, edit and share photographs. With digitalisation the image has taken even more importance in our society, becoming part of the life of amateurs and professionals alike. The spectrum of the photographic practice has exploded and carries a high potential, occupying the analogical space and the digital world alike. Images also bring to reflection on society, helping us to reflect on our lives and the principles we stand for. The medium has never had such an impact on our life, both in a positive and negative sense.
F.B. Within your work you approach photography from multiple perspectives: not only Director of the Biel/Bienne Photography Festival and Visual Art teacher: you are a talented photographer as well. Combining these two sides of the coin is quite complicated under multiple perspectives. Which insights and considerations have you gained from such peculiar position?
S.G. My profile is quite coherent. It responds to an attempt to keep contact with culture, using it as a tool to question the way we think and we act. Our reasonings come from an educative and cultural heritage, and it is fundamental to be aware of that. Photography offers a possibility to reflect on our ways of being. And that is what brought me to this medium, its capacity of talking to everyone. At a first look photographs come across as very easily decipherable, yet with time they gather a depth and a possibility both for interpretation and reinterpretation over time. Also, an image is a fragment of a bigger whole. One can always add to it and build a discourse. In Cultural Mediation photography becomes a great tool to create a pedagogical process, as we all take photographs and observe them–starting from our mirrors already. Photography can help us understand the world and our place in it. Combining photography and curation allows for the creation of new intersections every year: in the festival we combine different mediums and context, questioning the medium in
itself. Exhibitions occur in museums, in public spaces, in galleries. It is an experiment to test how photography reacts to different audiences and contexts.
F.B. Being part of the curatorial circle of Photo Basel is a delicate responsibility, one which influences directly the visual languages represented at the photography fair. Which principles do you keep fixed when evaluating exciting art?
S.G. Exciting art generates questions. Questions that I ask myself and then find asked in a different way. This is what makes a photograph fascinating, an unusual perspective on a subject which opens new windows. It might also occur with questions I have already seen reflected in other works: finding a completely new point of view that still fascinates me: this indicates that the work respects high qualitative standards. Personally I have a sensibility for contemporary art, due to its reflections on issues I face in daily life and on the society I live within. Also, artists are researchers. A work which is relevant must show a research behind, it has to be more than one shot. There has to be investment and willingness to push the issue to its limits, be it through repetition or exploration. The form can then be presented as a photograph, as a series, or anything else, as long as it is intelligible. Form has to make the discourse intelligible to the public. This is another qualitative aspect. PhotoBasel aims to provide chances to connect with Swiss and International galleries, in addition to bringing photography closer to the audience. At the Festival I work for a mainly public association which sponsors one third of the funds publicly. The other two thirds of the funding come from a sponsoring work we make to get support from private and public sectors. Thus, I also have a strong strategic and managerial activity: I am both the artistic and administrative director of the festival, and the market aspect is as interesting as the curatorial one. It is fundamental for the public and the private sector to realise how complementary and self-reinforcing they can be.
© Marwan Bassiouni. New Dutch Views #15, The Netherlands 2018. From the series New Dutch Views.
F.B. The physical isolation due to the pandemic has influenced our approach to photography in many ways. We expected we would be able to come back to reality at a point, yet reality has changed completely by now. How has the role of Photography Festival Director changed accordingly?
S.G. As you said, reality has changed and so has our relationship with time and space. That has unavoidably influenced the way we practice images and the way we take pictures: many photographers have found themselves locked in a room, asking themselves how they could progress with their work. For the festival it has been a catastrophe. We had to cancel it and postpone all exhibitions to 2021. There has been a moving solidarity as I asked the photographers to postpone the release of their projects with us, and that way we have been able to work together. The difficulty as a Director is to keep a perspective in the long term. We are in a difficult time but one cannot forget we will get through it. Many people ask me how I intend to present works in 2021 in order to reflect the pandemic. First, since the theme was Rupture, it has gained even more interest. We were in such rupture that we could not make the festival, thus the theme has proved to be quite a relevant theme. It reflects cultural, sexual, political and religious ruptures that originated from the pandemic as well. The aim is to keep a broad spectrum rather than confining the festival to the pandemic. Now I see how, slowly, photography has been influenced by the pandemic. We are in a time of post- pandemic photography. Photographers could not go out, thus many works are concerned with the role of archives and the way we can reread them, questioning their meaning. One can see how the pandemic has created concerns about our heritage, which is why I am considering to include this topic in the next edition. For instance, more attention goes towards rituals and the role of women photographers, in addition to the wider impact of digitalisation. Photography has to evolve with the current digitalisation and confront it, which is happening through projects made to be shown online. A less positive point is the question of freedom of expression. Many issues deal with where and how can we express ourselves, where can debate still take place? Many photographers confront such problems, as freedom of expression is being threatened and we should be aware of that. Artists always find ways to express themselves, but there has to be a contact with the public. Platforms are all owned and controlled, so the discourse is consequently controlled. Public space is maybe less present in our life currently: how do we preserve a democratic exchange on digital platforms?
F.B. An increasing attention is being posed on the role of archives and on the policies of digital spaces at the same time. How can artists overcome the new challenges posed by the transition to digital meeting spaces and sales platforms?
S.G. I recently discussed such issue with photographers. Today one has to be aware of the audience, which is very participative in a way. But how does an artist involve the audience and make sure there is reception for a work? Not being a practicing photographer anymore, my role is to give such freedom to artists as they exhibit in the festival. I make sure there is a confrontation with the public. Photographers and artists will find themselves way to express their work and adapt to a complex political context. What and how can be done will be questioned by creatives themselves. And I know it is hard to be an artist today. I can only try to support their growth and commit to engaging with these questions.
Sarah Girard is the Director of the Biel/Bienne Festival of photography since 2018, a festival of emerging and contemporary photography held in a bilingual city in the center of Switzerland. Every year the festival presents between 22 and 25 exhibitions of contemporary artists, both Swiss and international, to create a dialogue between the Swiss scene of photography and the international one. Before that, she has worked in Cultural Mediation and has been a professional photographer. Her figure merges complementary skills in photography, pedagogy, community and curation.
