No Photography (2004) refers to the political division of Cyprus, but in a broader sense to the question “What is a border?” and thereby also to the history of other divisions. The frame around the context-less plasma screen places a border around a quiet, innocuous scene, in which white clouds slowly drift from left to right across a blue sky, a border which recalls the classic picture, while at the same time going far beyond. Friedl in fact photographed real clouds in the sky over the no-photography zone of the “Green Line” that has divided Cyprus for decades. The cloud images were then animated in the studio. The computer animation was originally part of the larger exhibition project OUT OF THE SHADOWS, realized by the artist at the Witte de With, center for contemporary art, in Rotterdam. The less realistic the moving clouds appear, the clearer their function as a means of aesthetic reflection, for example, on art’s ability to be political. Cultural historian Mieke Bal writes, “No Photography appears to ask the question how far you can, must go, beyond contextualism.”

Peter Friedl was born in Oberneukirchen, Austria, in 1960, and currently lives and works in Berlin. Since the early nineties, he has been building up a heterogeneous body of work (photography, painting, video, drawing, text) with a strong component of social and political critique. Friedl draws attention to the conflicts between contemporary politics and aesthetic narrative. He often turns to genres (tableaux vivant, documents) and subject matter (childhood, social exclusion) that are undervalued in the modern artistic tradition, and uses displacement and overexposure to challenge accepted systems of representation. Friedl pushes the boundaries of genres and codes for purposes that are clearly critical. He is best known for the photographic works he produced in South Africa, Haiti, Brazil and other places that were the scenes of Europe’s colonial past, and for his work based on American philosopher John Rawls’ theory of justice. He has published numerous essays and critical texts on theatre and aesthetics.