IT has been the recurring experience of exhibitions and festivals all around the world in this age of pandemic. Plans made, designs devised, props propped; only to be forced to retreating into the interiors and negotiating the surreal process of “home display.”
As organisers of KL2020, a project that aimed to “celebrate all that has been achieved in this city and its inhabitants over the last decades in making Kuala Lumpur one of the most vibrant cities in Southeast Asia” began assembling the exhibition, the world was drawn into lockdown. Tempering all the restrictions induced by lockdown realities, the organisers nevertheless remained optimistic about the eventual production of work that emerges from periods of crisis.
“When we organized the exhibition last year, it was a kind of trial run,” Nadirah Zakariya of Exposure+ Photo explains. “There wasn't a pandemic in sight then and we began planning it from December 2019. Then the pandemic hit and we figured – ‘you know what photographers can still photograph stories anywhere, anytime, pandemic or not pandemic.’ I really think artists create some of the best works during uncertain times. That is also the beauty of art: how it can help people heal, or become an avenue to express stories and ideas.”
“So we didn't want to let the pandemic stop us, and it didn't. The bulk of the works for KL2020 were created between April-July 2020, when we were in the thick of the MCO. Some 18 photographers managed to come through and create amazing work. We are confident that it could happen again this year.”
Describing its efforts as “a photography curation program… where the organizers will assist and guide selected photographers in identifying stories, ideas or concepts that can be executed into a photography project, through editing, sequencing, and ultimately, creating a visually flowing and personally satisfying photo project”, Exposure+ Photo's theme for the year 2021 is the laconic yet lyrical 'Belong.'
“Basically, our small team of four photographers who include myself, (Founder-Director of the Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards) Steven (Lee), Munirah (Rohaizan) and Stacy (Liu), were thinking of themes, phrases, words that will be fitting to the times we are living in now, but also something which people could interpret in a diverse way,” Nadirah says.
“We went from ‘sense of belonging’, to ‘fragile states’, different words where… 2020 was such a wild year: how do we process everything that happened, and is still happening now? So we felt that a ‘sense of belonging’ or ‘belong’ really fit since we are all trying to make sense of what is going on; a lot of people have been away from their comfort zones, from their hometowns, from their homes, and what does ‘belong’ mean to them now? It could be in the literal sense of ‘belong’, or it could be on a more personal level. It can be interpreted more literally too, like ‘be-long’. I think people can have fun with the word play as well.”
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Exposure+ Photo’s project 'Belong' aspires to be an expansive experience for the photographer and seeks to reach out to a wide and diverse community of viewers. The exhibition will be spread across various locations in Kuala Lumpur.
“Exposure+ Photo photography exhibition in KL will happen in September 2021,” Nadirah says. “We are planning for it to be a 3 week long project, and besides the photography exhibitions, we are planning to have photography related events such as portfolio reviews, photography talks and discussions, and workshops.”
“The exhibitions will be across a few locations such as galleries, cafes, hotels – we’re still looking for partnerships – but our main objective is for it to be as accessible as it can to the public.”
“One thing we did last year was to organise it so that people were able to visit location to location by foot, by public transport, so that we don't just attract the arts and photography community, but are able to make photography more accessible for everyone in KL. It will also be online for people who are not in KL, and for those who are abroad.”
While festivals have become a ubiquitous feature of artistic life, what does Exposure+ Photo find most manifest in the participation of younger artists and photographers?
“A lot of young photographers and artists are looking to get their names out there,” Nadirah explains. “Festivals are a good way of getting a different viewership from a different demographic that they are not used to. That is also one of the reasons why we want the festival to be as accessible as it can be.”
To glean the statements and objectives of Exposure+ Photo is to recognize that its purpose and ethos rest largely on the idea of the educational, especially in this time of visual assault.
“Our passion is for photography. When we started it in 2013, we started it as a mentoring program. We share that passion in wanting to spread awareness with photography and photography education,” Nadirah explains further.
“The festival, then, is carried out with the same objective which is to spread what we love and in doing so have workshops, and talks, making it more of a community based project.
“It all kind of happened on its own, in an organic way, I never figured myself as a festival organizer before, it’s always been about the passion of photography, teaching it and spreading it.” – The Vibes, March 7, 2021
Exposure+ Photo is calling for submissions towards its project ‘Belong.’ A detailed outline of the project and its requirements can be found at: https://exposureplus.wordpress.com/ Calls for submissions closes on 12.03.2021.
