Date: 20.07.2024
The project versos features people/politicians hanging their own campaign posters. However, the actual poster is not visible, showing only its white backside. White iconographically represents purity, innocence, and intellectual clarity. During every election, there is an attempt, or at least a promise, to rethink politics, to find new solutions for existing problems – but also, to attract supporters for one’s ideas or party in a new, more efficient way.
The face of the person making these promises plays a significant role. Many posters rely on the portrait of a politician, meant to be recognized and thus instill greater trust – both in the person and the party. Others use images showing the politician interacting with the public. Finally, the message on a textual level is kept brief to speak more directly and highlight the universal nature of the message.
In this photography project, the aim is to interlink these three levels. The result will be images that recursively overlap these three levels. In one image, without creating tautologies (through the actual poster image), there will be: a person/politician, a performative action of this person, during which their image as a politician is created, and an election poster.
The purpose of the project is to reflect on how the political image of an individual is created. At the same time, a single image should show the portrait of the natural person (as a contrary to his legal identity as a politician), their societal position (as a politician), and the medium through which this position communicates with society (the election poster).
The name of the project merges the term versus (Latin for “turned, reversed”) as a synonym for “against” or “opposite”, and the variation of this term verso, which refers to the backside of a sheet of paper, papyrus, parchment, or a banknote.
The project is initiated on the occasion of the 2024 elections for the 8th Brandenburg State Parliament.