Willingshausen
When we think of “hidden worlds,” secrets may be the first thing that comes to mind. But we wanted to dig deeper. We were inspired by a text that is over 2,400 years old, yet more relevant than ever: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In it, Plato describes people who have been chained in a dark cave since birth. They cannot turn around. The only thing they can see is a wall in front of them. Behind them, a fire burns, and between the fire and the prisoners, figures are carried past. The shadows of these figures fall on the wall. For these people, the shadows are the only reality. They do not know that there is a real, brightly lit world out there. We live in the age of smartphones, television, and social media. Every day we scroll through feeds, see short news snippets, perfectly staged Instagram images, or images generated by artificial intelligence. We stare at displays — the modern cave walls of our time. And far too often, we confuse these digital, filtered shadows with reality itself. We let the modern “puppet masters” — the algorithms of tech companies — dictate what we are supposed to see. This is exactly where our exhibition begins. Photography takes center stage. Not to create yet another quick, superficial image, but to serve as a tool for insight. It aims to slow things down. It seeks to take a look behind the scenes. Werner Thuleweit, coordinator of the Foto-Community Neukirchen A special accompanying program enriches the exhibition with three multimedia presentations: - 01.11. - 5:00 p.m. - Marion Müller - Hidden Worlds in Nature and in the Universe
