On view at the MMK ZOLLAMT – Tobias Zielony's “Manitoba” is a series of works capturing the lives of teenage gang members of Native American origin in their urban surroundings in Winnipeg, the provincial capital of the Canadian state of Manitoba. In the tradition of the classical photojournalistic feature, Zielony makes use here of various pictorial genres, presenting individual portraits and group photos in which the gang members pose, as well as views of the architecture and landscape in Winnipeg and on a reservation. Apart from his subjects’ globalized dress codes and gestures, what interests the artist most are the specific regional histories of the Native Americans in their socio-economic context. Likewise to be shown at the MMK Zollamt, the film The Deboard (2008) is dedicated to the story of a gang member’s withdrawal from his gang. The term “deboard” refers to the exit ritual a person must subject himself to before he can begin a new life as a free man. In his film, Zielony impressively combines coarse-grained black-and-white scenes of the ex-convict’s environment with the subject’s own account of his withdrawal from the gang.The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue documenting the artist’s working process. Tobias Zielony: Manitoba will be on view at the MMK Zollamt from November 12 to January 15.
