Documentary projects

Paradox collaborates closely with the Master Film and Photographic studies at Leiden University (MaFPS). In the context of the course Editorial and Curatorial Training, taught by Bas Vroege, projects that are suggested to Paradox are inserted into an educational context. In parallel, student teams work on possible solutions for translating the work to one or more platforms of presentation.

This interaction, named Z_Lab, was applied to a new master’s programme in Modena in January of 2014 for the first time. In 2016, at the Fondazione Fotografia in Modena, attention was paid to a project with Syrian photographer Issa Touma. There, the basis of the idea for Studio Aleppo was born. The students also worked on Voyage à Dakar, a project by Dutch photographer Judith Quax.

Both projects were also introduced in The Hague (the Leiden workshops take place at the KABK academy of arts) in 2016. The Hague also saw the passage of many other guests, amongst whom: photographer/filmmaker Carel van Hees, for an advice/workshop session using his material for Document Nederland, and the artistic leader of Fotodok, Femke Lutgerink, with a research question in the context of their anticipated exhibition on religion.

Aleksandra (Ola) Kononiuk (curator of Touma’s earlier exhibition in The Netherlands) was physically present in Leiden/The Hague, with the Modena students she conversed through Skype. Judith Quax and her editor Peter Claassen came to the workshop in The Hague, while in Modena they were represented online by assistant Lisette Swier.

A selection of photographs taken during the workshops will be added soon.