"The program at Haus der Kunst is focused on transdisciplinary approaches, transnational outlooks, collaborative making, re-evaluations of histories, and the presentation of work by emerging artists and by trailblazers from the recent past. The major group exhibition "Trace-Formations of Likeness" knits these various threads together." - Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director Haus der Kunst
Examining how photographers across a range of cultures have deployed portraiture as an apparatus for critical investigation throughout the history of the medium, Trace visualises the political and cultural factors that shape individual and collective subjectivities, with a particular focus on the relation between (self-)representation and social constructions of identity. This thematically and conceptually grounded approach has guided the formation of The Walther Collection from the very beginning, and has been publicly articulated through the curatorial framework established for its inaugural exhibition by the late Okwui Enwezor (1963–2019), preeminent curator, scholar, thinker, and former Haus der Kunst director.
