JYOTI MISTRY AND CELINA LUNSFORD

As part of the RAY triennial exhibiting artist Jyoti Mistry and Celina Lunsford, RAY curator and artistic director of the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt will talk about her project Cause of Death (2020).

Mistry's project Cause of Death (2020) is part of the exhibition RAY Echoes Emotion
at the Museum Angewandte Kunst. In it, Mistry collages historical archive material from the EYE Film Museum in Amsterdam and takes a penetrating look at the historical marginalization and representation of women. In contrasting images, Western women are portrayed either as sex symbols or as mother figures, while non-Western women appear as exotic attractions. The video footage is accompanied by the words of the South African writer and poet Napo Masheane.

“In a unique non-linear visualization, Jyoti Mistry draws attention to the relevance of violence against women without reproducing it, but through re-thinking the languages of historical archives, the spoken word and illustration,” says RAY curator and Artistic Director of FFF Celina Lunsford.

Mathias Wagner K, RAY curator and director of the Museum Angewandte Kunst: “Jyoti Mistry's film Cause of Death makes me hold my breath again and again while watching and listening to it. It touches me deeply. And not just because it addresses a highly current issue: structural and general violence against women's bodies.”

Southafrican born Jyoti Mistry is a renowned artist and filmmaker. Her works move between the poles of traditional cinema and installation. They have been screened at film festivals in Toronto, Winterthur, Rotterdam and Durban, among others, and have been shown in exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg and the Kunsthalle Wien. She is currently Professor of Film at the University of Göteborg.

Celina Lunsford is a curator of photography and other media. She is the artistic director of the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, a major photographic art center since 1992. Lunsford is responsible for the exhibitions program, the FFF Academy and co-curator for the RAY Triennale. Additionally she edits and writes for artists. Lunsford has been a juror and nominator for many prizes, including the Shpilman International Prize and the Prix Pictet; she has curated and written for other organizations such as Fundación Mapfre, Fundación Telefonica, Photography Festival Lodz and Lianzhou International Photography Festival. She writes for photographers and has mentored for Olympus Recommended Award, the Joop Swart Masterclass and ASEF (Asia-Europe Foundation) Forum for Photographers. Recent publications include, Ideologies: RAY 2021 (Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2021), Peter Fink. My Mind’s Eye (Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2020) and Picture Languages, Photographic Art from Georgia (Societäts Verlag, Frankfurt, 2018). Lunsford was 2010–2018 the Vice President of the DFA (German Academy of Photography). In 2022 Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences named her Honorary Professor.