In conjunction with World Press Photo 20, from 11 September WestLicht features a project by Austrian photographer Simon Lehner (*1996) in the upper floor gallery as part of its contemporary series.

For Men don’t play / Men do play Lehner joined the so-called airsoft-scene at their simulated battlefields as quasi embedded journalist between 2015 and 2019. Armed with dummy weapons and plastic bullets, this subculture re-stages warzones like Iraq and Afghanistan while actually being in the forests of Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Austria – dead serious and with astounding effort: up to 1.500 combatants, tanks, helicopters, real tactics and artificial death.

Lehner’s work explores the rituals of militant masculinity at play while at the same time questioning the medium’s ability of truthful depiction. Juxtaposing pictures taken with the camera with digitally generated 3D images that act as real photographs, the series not only blurs the line between real and simulated theatre of war but also the certainty of photographic authenticity.

More information on the artist’s website.

Coinciding with the exhibition at WestLicht and until 17.09. Simon Lehner presents his project The mind is a voice, the voice is blind at Bildraum 01 in the first district.