Opening of Solo Exhibition & Book Presentation – Jan Banning
Galerie Fontana Amsterdam: Saturday 30 May | 16:00 – 18:00
We are pleased to invite you to the opening of the solo exhibition by Dutch artist Jan Banning, alongside the presentation of his latest book, Bureaucratics Revisited.
Latest Series: Blood Bonds – Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda
This compelling new body of work explores a universal truth: every genocide eventually comes to an end. Survivors, the bereaved, perpetrators, and bystanders are left to rebuild their lives together. But how is reconciliation possible when distrust lingers and fear and hatred continue to smolder beneath the surface? The process of healing can take years sometimes generations.
In Blood Bonds, Jan Banning, in collaboration with writer Dick Wittenberg, portrays in both images and words a series of unlikely pairs: survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide alongside the perpetrators responsible for harming often killing their family members and loved ones. These are individuals who, against all odds, have chosen forgiveness and reconciliation an exceptional and deeply moving phenomenon.
Book Presentation: Bureaucratics Revisited
Bureaucratics is a long-term project comprising both a book and a traveling exhibition, which has been presented in over 45 museums, galleries, and institutions across eighteen countries on five continents. The exhibition, together with the newly revised and deluxe limited edition of the book (Bureaucratics Revisited, 2026), reflects the work of an anarchist’s heart, a historian’s mind, and an artist’s eye.
About the artist
Jan Banning is an internationally acclaimed Dutch photographer whose work explores the relationship between power, history, and the human condition. Combining the visual precision of portraiture with the depth of historical and social research, Banning creates photographic series that examine themes such as war, colonialism, bureaucracy, justice, and collective memory.
Originally trained as a social and economic historian at Radboud University Nijmegen, Banning approaches photography with a distinctive research-based methodology. His internationally recognised projects include Bureaucratics, Comfort Women, Law & Order, Red Utopia, and Blood Ties, a series on reconciliation and healing after the genocide in Rwanda. Across these bodies of work, Banning portrays his subjects with striking dignity and psychological intensity, revealing the complex realities that shape individual and collective lives.
Banning’s work has been exhibited widely in museums and institutions internationally and is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Rijksmuseum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the High Museum of Art, the Centraal Museum, the collection of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the AFAS Art Collection.