Surreal Stagings of a Field Researcher

Based on in-depth sociological field research, Verena Andrea Prenner immerses herself in urban and rural settings, staging people in a surreal and grotesque manner. The artist invites local volunteers and non-professional participants to act as models, dressing them in elaborate, self-made costumes and masks. She then transforms these staged situations into striking photographic series, where the camera and the photographic gaze serve as an intermediary between the performative image and its audience. The photographs are analog-developed by the artist herself.

One of Prenner’s most dedicated and attention-grabbing photography projects took place in the Middle East. To realize it, she lived for an extended period in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, engaging deeply with the local social and societal conditions. "After long reflections, conversations, and observations on site, I attempted to translate my subjective perception of the atmosphere into photographic works," the artist explains.

With her vibrant, playful, and almost comic-like characters, she transforms everyday locations into enigmatic, scenographic tableaus that deliberately resist a clear interpretation. (It proved particularly challenging, as a woman, to stage Muslim men in costumes in public spaces.)
"For me, this work is about capturing an atmosphere rather than portraying an individual person," Prenner emphasizes.

"Camping", the title of this photo series, is a bold attempt to view the precarious and unstable life in a refugee camp from a new and unexpected perspective. Moving beyond classic documentary photography, the artist performs a compelling and enriching shift in perspective—one that lingers in the viewer’s mind long after."

— Günther Oberhollenzer, director of the Künstlerhaus Vienna, 

on the occasion of the 2023 Art Award Ceremony

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Verena Andrea Prenner’s journey as a sociologist and artistic photographer began late 2000’s. Over the years, her photographic projects have delved into societal structures, cultural identities and marginalized groups particularly across Europe, the Middle East and Central Africa. 

Feeling constrained by the technicality of traditional photography, she sought to infuse her practice with elements of sociology. For her, a single discipline in this sense was too grounded to investigate the theoretical aspects of life at large. 

“All the World’s a stage”.

And we see nothing alike. Prenner’s work explores how our perception is deeply influenced by the personal archives of our memory. To challenge this, she strives for the idleness of an observer, particularly through the use of masks and stages, the tools allowing her to examine society as a whole, rather than focusing on the individual. In her work, masks create a sense of alienation, transforming people into symbols of broader structures and figures. The costumes and settings may be staged, but so is the society they reflect.

Her work is a repertoire expanding to societal satire focusing on European identity, exploring colonial legacies and reflecting on the contemporary memory in Central Africa, examining displacement and conflict in Palestine with visual metaphors. Across, they function as form of a research rather than purely an aesthetic exercise.

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-— Reflextion written by Çinar Yazici

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