Out of Focus

Sa w wè a se pa sa (What you see is not what it is. Haitian proverb)

Out of Focus: blurred, obscure, unclear, fuzzy, if something is out of focus, it is not being discussed or its purpose or nature is not clear. (Collins Dictionary)

The photographer Leonore Mau (1916-2013) travelled to Haiti in the 1970s during the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Baby Doc Duvalier. She was travelling 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. However, the majority of her work has neither been published nor shown in exhibitions and can be found in the photographer's estate at the bpk picture agency in Berlin.

Out of Focus is a collaborative exploration of Leonore Mau's photographs taken in Haiti. The exhibition seeks a decolonial approach to these images and asks how working with this archive can contribute to changing the image of Haiti, which is still characterised by stereotypes today.

While Mouse's photo books also contain photographs that confirm the prejudiced image of Haiti and Vodou, her extensive estate contains images that convey a multi-layered picture of the country, in which everyday life, dictatorship, spirituality, beauty and tourism exist side by side. However, looking at the photographs also raises questions about image ethics, representation, exoticism and extractivism.

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 diverse expertise, the exhibition develops a dialogue-based, critical and productive approach to Maus images. The photographs are shown in the Lenbachhaus in a multimedia, sensual environment. An essential component is a supporting programme in which the previous dialogues in and with the public are continued through performances and discussions.

Out of Focus focuses on Haiti and Leonore Mau and sees itself as a process-based case study on the handling of artistic-ethnological photographs and archives. The project is dedicated to the central questions of access and responsibility and explores how we can approach the reappraisal of (post-)colonial injustices with sensitivity and respect.

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.

In co-operation with the S. Fischer Foundation and the bpk picture agency, Berlin

With the kind support of the Förderverein Lenbachhaus e.V.

Last edited on 28.04.2025