Shaping the Encounter
The concept of “encounter” within photography, curated by Natasha Christia.
Instructors
Image-makers Alejandro Acín and Max Pinckers, in synergy with curator Natasha Christia.
Dates & Location
13–16 June 2024
Benaki Museum / Pireos
Athens
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Learn more and apply by 4 May 2026.
Limited to 15 participants.
Participants: Eirini Androulaki, Sarah Booker, Ariana Darvish-Tabar, Nikoleta Delagrammatika, Irina Fosgerau, Eleana Konstantellos, Nikos Motsiopoulos, Martin Kemper, Athina Neocleous, Danae Panagiotaki, Soti Tyrologlou, Maria Siorba, Elli Xipolitaki
Over the course of four days, participants explored the notion of encounter with photography alongside Alejandro Acín (artist, designer, and educator), Max Pinckers (photographer), and Natasha Christia (program curator). The two guest artists were invited to contribute to this year’s edition through their distinct theoretical and empirical practices—Max Pinckers in the field of speculative documentary, and Alejandro Acín in community-based work.
The point of departure for the laboratory was the interruption of routine modes of engaging with lens-based projects. Participants were introduced to a series of relational exercises, to which they responded individually or collectively, applying them to their personal projects.
Overview
Day 1 OPEN SPACE: Strategies for a speculative space in documentary photography
Max Pinckers
Departing from open space practices, we attempted to create a dialectical space of exchange in which a series of problematics within our artistic practices as visual makers could be embodied and collectively confronted. We then moved into live action role play (LARP). Drawing broadly on constellation practices and on LARP—a form of play in which participants physically portray characters—we sought to question how diverse issues and positions in photography might be thought through by personifying them. Improvisation and the tension between script and character functioned as our primary tools.
Day 2 INTERCEPTING REALITY: A collective process of imagining new contexts and spaces of public / institutional / collective / physical & virtual interventions for our project
Alejandro Acín
Asking “What do images do in public, cultural, commercial, or private space?” implied an examination of their conditions of visibility—of what is made visible, revealed, or seen by others, and, conversely, of what is hidden, obscured, or disguised through the very acts of producing and exhibiting images in public space. In the first situation, Intercepting Reality, we attempted to question how collections of images might operate both archivally and artistically, and how the questions attached to them could be mobilized in order to communicate and simplify complex narratives. Working with image selection, collective reading, and brainstorming, we explored potential ways of activating the group’s image collection and disseminating it in the public realm. This process led to an experimental engagement with audiences beyond normative modes of interaction in public space, opening up possibilities for shared understanding and collective meaning-making.
The practical outcomes of the laboratory were presented publicly upon its conclusion as part of the photobook program. The forms varied, ranging from open-space conversations and performance documentation to the production of a shared, process-based body of work.
Daily schedule
DAY 1 Thursday 13 June 2024
Natasha Christia with Alejandro Acín & Max Pinckers
15.00-20.00: Welcome-introduction – theoretical and methodological framework
DAY 2 Friday 14 June 2024
Max Pinckers, Open Space: Strategies for a speculative space in documentary photography.
10.00-12.00: Concept presentation
12.00-20.00: Relational exercises
Short breaks and one-hour lunch break included.
DAY 3 Saturday 15 June 2024
Alejandro Acín, Intercepting Reality: A collective process of re-imagining new contexts and spaces of public/institutional/collective/physical & virtual interventions for our project.
10.00-12.00: Concept presentation
12.00-20.00: Relational exercises
Short breaks and one-hour lunch break included.
DAY 4 Sunday 16 June 2024
Natasha Christia with Alejandro Acín & Max Pinckers
10.00-14.00: Coming together – conclusions
18.00-19.00: Public presentation at the Βenaki Μuseum / Pireos 138
SHAPING THE ENCOUNTER guest instructors with Natasha Christia
Alejandro Acín (*1984, Spain) is founder-director of IC Visual Lab (ICVL), an independent photography platform recently appointed to lead the second edition of Bristol Photo Festival. With ICVL, Alejandro has produced curatorial & publishing projects with Bristol Museums & Archives, Arnolfini Gallery (UK), Eastside Projects (UK), Format Festival Derby (UK), Getxophoto international festival (Spain) & Photo Kathmandu (Nepal), with support from Arts Council England, Historic England, Heritage Lottery Fund & the British Council. Since 2023, he acts as the new Bristol Photo Festival Director, its second edition is produced and managed by IC Visual Lab. Beyond ICVL, he has a track record of managing and activating historic collections, including Historical Photographs of China 1850-1950 (University of Bristol), the Martin Parr Foundation library, The Nepal Picture Library and the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection. Acín has produced personal projects exploring ideas around collective memory and politics and his work has been exhibited in Colombia, France, the UK and Spain. His latest book The Rest is History was included in the best books of the year at PhotoEspaña 2022 and Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2022. He is also an Associate Lecturer on the MA Photography programme at the University of South Wales.
Max Pinckers (*1988, Belgium) grew up in Indonesia, India, Australia and Singapore, and is currently based in Brussels, Belgium, where he was born. His oeuvre explores visual strategies in documentary photography. Not believing in the possibility of sheer objectivity or neutrality, he advocates a manifest subjective approach, which is made visible through the explicit use of theatrical lighting in a documentary context and his collaborations with others. Documentary photography, for Pinckers, involves more than the representation of an external reality: it’s a speculative process that approaches reality and truth as plural, malleable notions open to articulation in different ways. Extensive research and diligent technical preparation are combined with improvisation to obtain lively, unexpected, critical, simultaneously poetic and documentary images. His works take shape as self-published artist books and exhibition installations such as The Fourth Wall (2012), Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty (2014), Margins of Excess (2018), Red Ink (2018) and State of Emergency (2024). Pinckers is a Doctor in the Arts and a lecturer at the School of Arts/KASK, Ghent, and has received multiple international awards, such as the Edward Steichen Award Luxembourg 2015 and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2018. Pinckers is co-founder of the independent publishing house Lyre Press and The School of Speculative Documentary. He is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde in Antwerp and Tristan Lund in London.