Alone Together, POC groupshow and catalogue, with works from:
Patricia Almeida (Portugal)
Johannes Rompanen, Janne Lehtinen and Ville Lenkkeri (Finland)
Charles Fréger, Marina Gaddoneix, Thomas Humery and Thomas Mailaender (France)
Loan Nguyen and Mathieu Bernard-Reymond (Switzerland)
Goetz Diergarten, Matthias Koch and Peter Granser (Germany)
Rachel Reupke, Adam Thompson, Stephen Hughes and Trish Morrissey (England)
Brigitta Lund (Denemark)
Bert Danckaert (Belgium)
Jasper de Beijer (Holland)
tekst: Didier Mouchel
paperback, 21 x 27 cm, ongeveer 60 foto’s in zwart-wit en kleur
uitgave: POC/Veenman 2006
Catalogue of the travelling exhibition here available
POC from the inside
Why are we members of POC? Because we can’t survive as individuals in the artistic world with its sharks and its jealousies? Because we want to use each other’s contacts and experiences? Because we want to network each other up and become individually better that way? Or is it because we recognise and respect each other’s work? Is it the fraternity and the old boy (or girl) feeling? Are we spurred by interactions with peers in an otherwise lonely artist’s universe? Is it because we enjoy getting respect from others? Because we must internationalise or perish? Because we want to bridge the gap between promising young artist and monumental achiever? Is it not a law of nature that the whole is more than the sum of its parts?
To be sure, all of these arguments apply to POC. Whether POC should be seen as a network, a club, a collective, or a family – we don’t know yet. POC is a little bit of all that, and perhaps somewhat of a tribe, as Charles Fréger, the founder of this round table, never ceases to note. Soulmates tend to stick together, regardless of whether they share a passion for tattoos, are young parents or stamp collectors: togetherness stimulates and the institution thus created generates opportunities.
The name ‘Piece Of Cake’ reflects the lightness with which we address the young artist’s mission impossible. For it is no joke to find a budget for making a book, and it is not simple to walk the tight rope between artistic consistency and financial compromise. We too have families who wish to live ‘a normal life’. Some of us thus do some teaching while others are involved in commercial work.
One thing is certain: we all start from the same core business, authentic expression, the way in which we try to examine ourselves and our world through our cameras. Because all of us prefer to do this as efficiently and pleasantly as possible, we created this magic circle. POC is an echo chamber and a mirror, a meeting place and a forum.
At the bottom of all this is the fact that POC stands for old-fashioned and robust romanticism, something like a masons’ lodge, a quality label that we impose (pretentiously and ambitiously) upon ourselves. POC has a complex recruitment procedure and it has a president and a board. In spite of all this, it all remains a piece of cake with a serious dose of tongue in cheek.
Bert DANCKAERT, POC member
