Bal Mieke: Real Beauty Jodi Bieber

der Sparkasse Goch sowie den Stadtwerken Goch, zu begleiten und herauszugeben.
Schliesslich danken wir Christina Hackenschuh und Markus Braun für die professionelle Gestaltung, in der die Ideen der Künstlerin wie der Kunststiftung bestens gespiegelt werden. Franz Engelen und sein Team haben in bewährter Weise aus all dem ein herrliches Buch gemacht; ihnen sei an dieser Stelle ebenfalls
herzlichst gedankt. Mit der Serie Real Beauty erlaubt uns Jodi Bieber einen Einblick in die Beziehung zwischen Fotografin und Amateurmodel. Das Ergebnis sind Fotografien die ohne computergestützte Bildbearbeitungsprogramme auskommen. Genau deshalb wird uns unsere eigene Realität bewusst und macht uns aufmerksam auf die immer häufiger inszenierte Scheinwirklichkeit die unseren Alltag prägt.
English:
When asked how her photographic series Real Beauty came about, Jodi Bieber likes to respond by telling a story in which she recalls a trip from London to Paris during which she sat opposite a young model. Looking at her face, Jodi Bieber realised the obvious discrepancy between reality and the glossy products
of Parisian fashion labels. Having heard how the models' appearance is retouched using special image-processing software, she realised just how far removed the photographic product can be, from the actual reality. Given the incredible impact of fashion photography all over the world,
Jodi Bieber began to gradually develop an idea for a project: to use her camera to get to the bottom of "real beauty¿. The photographs in Real Beauty are very candid. Far from peering voyeuristically into people's private sphere, Jodi Bieber presents us with pictures that satisfy our longing for truth in our search for reality. The Real Beauty series consists of 30 important autonomous largeformat photographs taken between 2007 and 2008. These works already formed part of an extensive solo-exhibition at the Stadthaus Ulm and the Museum Goch in 2013. Over the course of numerous personal discussions with the artist, a decision was reached to publish the entire series for the first time in book form. The authors who have contributed to this publication enlarge our view of these photographs from very different perspectives. We are very grateful to Ferial Haffajee, Mieke Bal, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Michket Krifa and Lauren Beukes for making Bieber's work the subject of a broad social and arthistorical
debate. We would like to thank Jodi Bieber for having had sufficient faith in us to place her works at our disposal. We are also grateful to the board and the trustees of the Goch Art Foundation for their decision to back the publication of this book together with their partners, the Sparkasse Goch and the Stadtwerken
Goch. Gratitude is also due to Christina Hackenschuh and Markus Braun for a professional book design that perfectly mirrors the ideas of both the artist and the Art Foundation. In their tried-and tested-manner, Franz Engelen and his team have once again produced a wonderful book. My sincerest thanks to them as well.
Jodi Bieber's Real Beauty series enables us to view the relationship between photographer and sitter. Due to the fact that the photographer foregoes computer-assisted image processing programmes, these images impress our own reality, drawing our attention to the increasingly staged reality that shapes our everyday life.
Museum Goch, January 2014