Artist Talk with Paul Mpagi Sepuya

The artist Paul Mpagi Sepuya will provide insights into his work. Sepuya is interested in a self-referential form of portrait photography. In a series of elusive self-portraits that is part of the exhibition Orlando – Based on a Novel by Virginia Woolf, he critically reflects on discriminating terms and visual imagery in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. In his poetic images, Sepuya uses the camera as a tool to question the gaze directed at himself as well as at historical and societal constructs, to evade it and finally, to point it back at the audience. In conversation with Nadine Wietlisbach, director Fotomuseum Winterthur, Sepuya will speak about his relationship to the novel Orlando and his working process.

The event is free, will be held in English and takes place on Zoom. Details on how to access the talk will be confirmed upon registration. Register here.

This event takes place in the framework of the exhibition Orlando – Based on a Novel by Virginia Woolf. The 1928 novel Orlando tells the story of a young noble person in the age of Queen Elizabeth I who lives for centuries without ageing and has the mysterious ability to switch gender. In 1992, film-maker Sally Potter devised what has become a classic adaptation of the book with actress Tilda Swinton in the title role. The exhibition of the same name, developed by Swinton, shows the work of contemporary artists and photographers who explore the main themes dealt with in Orlando’s story: gender fluidity, the idea of boundless consciousness and the prospect of living forever.