In the context of the exhibition "A Kind of Paradise – Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art"

In this artist talk, Omar Victor Diop and Lee Shulman discuss their collaborative project Being There. Being There uses manipulated historical photos to explore race, history, and visibility by imagining a Black presence in places where it was historically excluded.

Omar Victor Diop (b. 1980, Dakar, Senegal)
grew up cultivating his vivid imagination through literature and history, leading him to practice across mediums—photography, collage, and creative writing to fashion and textile design. Since 2011, Diop’s portfolio of self-portraits, in which he embodies historical figures and fictional characters, has questioned our relationships with collective memory and cultural history. His work is part of major collections such as the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and the Brooklyn Museum in the USA and has been exhibited at high-profile international events such as Paris Photo and the Rencontres d’Arles in France and Kyotographie in Japan. Major brands and corporations have commissioned Diop as an art director, including Lancel, Louis Vuitton, Bernardaud, Pernod Ricard, and Lavazza.

Lee Shulman (b. 1973, London, UK)
is a visual artist, photographer, and filmmaker. He graduated from the University of Westminster, UK, with a BA in film and photography and now lives and works in Paris. He founded The Anonymous Project in 2017 and invited the artist Omar Victor Diop to collaborate with him on it, which resulted in the book Being There (2023). Another collaboration with the photographer Martin Parr followed, producing the book Déjà View (2021), which was also the subject of a major exhibition at Magnum (Paris, 2022), and the documentary directed by Shulman, I Am Martin Parr (2025). Shulman’s own work has been exhibited widely with major shows internationally in Asia, the USA, and Europe; among these was The House at the annual summer photography festival, Rencontres d’Arles, France, in 2019.


Photo: Omar Victor Diop and Lee Shulman © MAGNIN-A


Language: English
Duration: approx. 60 minutes
Meeting point: in the exhibition space (Werner-Abegg auditorium, 2nd basement floor)

Notes

• In addition to your registration (5 CHF), a museum admission to the special exhibition “A Kind of Paradise” is required. Please purchase your ticket here or at the ticket desk on site.
• Number of participants limited
• Event takes place with a minimum of 8 participants

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