24 december 2021, Flor Linckens
Tania Franco Klein: "My images are about detours – the moment of being lost, needing to get somewhere but being paralysed."
Rotterdam has gained another cultural hotspot. Lobke Broos, who worked for the Nederlands Fotomuseum for many years, recently opened the new cultural enterprise ROOF-A in the Scheepvaartkwartier. The cultural meeting place opened with three solo exhibitions (by Gijs Assmann, Tania Franco Klein and Marjan Teeuwen), three previews of upcoming shows and a special rooftop installation by Atelier Van Lieshout. Due to the current government measures, a visit is not yet possible, but fortunately a number of exhibitions can be viewed online on GalleryViewer. In this article we highlight the exhibition by Tania Franco Klein, which is scheduled until 27 February 2022.
The Mexican photographer Tania Franco Klein discovered her passion for photography while studying architecture in Mexico City. That is why she also completed a master's degree in photography at the University of the Arts in London. Her work betrays a fascination with our social behaviour, but also a certain emotional disconnect, our obsession with eternal youth and the world we live in: a late capitalist society marked by excessive media stimulation, overconsumption and the psychological consequences for the people who are unable to take advantage of this capitalist (American) Dream. Isolation, as well as burnout, fears and depression.
Tania Franco Klein, Pool, Wig (Self Portrait), 2018, ROOF-A
‘Proceed to the Route’, the title of the exhibition, refers to the compelling voice of the Google Maps GPS navigation system. Franco Klein: “I was driving through the desert when my internet suddenly cut out. But the voice on the navigation software just kept on with this refrain: proceed to the route, proceed to the route. It felt like we can’t even get lost any more! Everything is preplanned and predetermined. It seemed a metaphor for a lot of life and the level of expectation we live with: you’re supposed to go to high school, then to college, then get a house. There are all these steps on the ladder of success, and there’s almost no room for detours and deviations. My images are about those detours – the moment of being lost, needing to get somewhere but being paralysed and unable to do anything about it.”
Tania Franco Klein, Proceed To The Route from Proceed To The Route, 2018, ROOF-A
As a result, many of the photos seem to be part of a mysterious travel diary. You see all the ingredients for a road movie: a somewhat dingy motel, a swimming pool, an old-fashioned bathroom and a dry country road. In some photos we see the photographer herself, in the form of her movie star alter ego. The photos have a cinematic quality, but the character does not connect with the viewer in any way.
Franco Klein's work has been exhibited worldwide and was previously featured in several leading media outlets, including The British Journal of Photography, the Aperture Foundation, I-D Magazine, The Guardian, and was commissioned by New York Magazine and Dior. Her work is currently also on display at The Photographers Gallery in London. Franco Klein was twice the recipient of the Sony World Photography Award, in addition to the Lensculture Exposure Awards, the Felix Schoeller Photo Award of Germany Nominee, the FOAM Paul Huf Award and the Photo London Artproof Schliemann Award for Best Emerging Artist, presented at Photo London in 2018.
