Art Calendar 28. February 2022

"Rare Disease Day" - How Art addresses the topic of "Rare Diseases"

Star photographer Martin Schoeller

NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, 17 February 2022

Martin Schoeller interviewing one of the XLH sufferers, Vanessa Zügel

© Martin Schoeller 

"Rare Disease Day" was launched in 2008 by EURORDIS, a non-governmental alliance of 984 patient organizations from 74 countries. The movement, which is now coordinated worldwide, always has its anniversary on the last day of February. In Düsseldorf, the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf is presenting a museum exhibition by star photographer Martin Schoeller with impressive portraits and short biographies of those affected. Here is a trailer for the project: https://vimeo.com/657501053/ba1d937b97 

The background

More than 300 million people worldwide suffer from one of more than 7000 rare diseases - one of them is genetically determined phosphate diabetes (XLH), which leads to severe bone growth disorders.

Martin Schoeller

The 53-year-old Munich-born photo artist Martin Schoeller lives and works in New York. He became famous worldwide with his "CLOSE UP" photo series, photographs taken at close range. This special kind of portraiture has become his unmistakable signature. He always photographs Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Taylor Swift, among others, heads of state such as Angela Merkel or Barack Obama, sports icons, music legends, but also unknown faces in the same way: Schoeller uses the same equipment and identical light, similar angles and distances every time.

The unknown faces are people who belong to a group in our society to whom he wants to give a "voice" in public to generate attention for their concerns. These include projects such as: "SURVIVORS" - survivors of the Holocaust, "Death Row Exonerees" - innocent people sentenced to death (see also: https://www.nationalgeographic.de/fotografie/2021/02/eigentlich-ist-es-folter and "Homeless" - homeless people, to name just three of his latest art projects.

 https://www.martinschoeller.com

VERNISSAGE

Vernissage on Thursday, February 17, 2022 from 18:00 to 21:00. Moderated by RTL presenter Wolfram Kons. Participating in the round table will be Martin Schoeller, table tennis player Björn Schnake, bronze medalist at the Paralympics in Tokyo 2021 and himself affected by the disease, as well as other people from public life, all of whom are directly or indirectly involved in the topic.

Location: NRW Forum Düsseldorf

The current Corona regulations apply.

Further information about the "Rare Disease Day

https://www.eurordis.org/de 

https://www.phosphatdiabetes.de