BURLAFINGEN.- The complex layers of meaning embedded in the physical attributes of a place are explored in Appropriated Landscapes, an exhibition on landscape photography of Southern Africa, on view at the Walther Collection in Neu-Ulm / Burlafingen, Germany. Bringing together the photography and video of thirteen contemporary artists—including Jane Alexander, Mitch Epstein, Ângela Ferreira, Peter Friedl, David Goldblatt, Christine Meisner, Sabelo Mlangeni, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, Jo Ractliffe, Penny Siopis, Mikhael Subotzky / Patrick Waterhouse, and Guy Tillim—the exhibition examines the effects of war, migration, colonization, industrialization, and ideology on the landscapes of South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and Mozambique. On view from June 11, 2011, through May 2012, Appropriated Landscapes reveals the distinct and varied histories of the region and its people, illustrating how landscape in its broadest definition is a construct of the mind—a work built up as much from the strata of memory as from layers of rock.

Curated by Corinne Diserens, Appropriated Landscapes is the second installment of the Walther Collection's annual exhibition program in Germany, which each year brings in a new curator to explore themes drawn from the Walther Family Foundation's collection. The exhibition is part of an ongoing three-year examination of the collection's extensive African photography holdings. Encompassing approximately 200 works, Appropriated Landscapes includes newly commissioned work by Ângela Ferreira, Christine Meisner, and Peter Friedl, as well as an extended presentation of As Terras do Fim do Mundo, Jo Ractliffe's photographic essay on the war-torn Angolan countryside, which premiered in April at the Walther Collection Project Space in New York City.

Appropriated Landscapes is presented throughout the three exhibition buildings on the Walther Collection’s campus—the Green House, Black House, and White Box. Each building provides a distinct environment for the presentation of photography and video, with the intimate galleries of the Green House pairing the work of David Goldblatt and Santu Mofokeng; the three galleries of the Black House presenting the haunting blackand-white photographs of Jo Ractliffe; and the White Box showcasing across its three floors a selection of photography and video by ten representative artists from the collection.

The two gallery floors of the Green House showcase the black-and-white photographs of South African photographers David Goldblatt and Santu Mofokeng, including work from the early 1960s through the present. Goldblatt has documented the changing landscape of South Africa for more than 60 years, giving particular attention to man-altered landscapes and deeply divisive ideological structures. His photographic examinations of the built environment and spatial planning in South Africa appear in dialogue with Santu Mofokeng's focus on the every-day life of the township, in particular on the previously undocumented aspects of spiritual life in black South Africa and in landscapes of trauma. This concept of landscape as the mute witness to history, imbued with spiritual meaning and memories, resonates with Christine Meisner’s video works on view in the Green House cinema on the lower level, including her newly commissioned work Disquieting Nature.

The Black House presents 60 black-and-white photographs from Jo Ractliffe’s newest body of work documenting the “landscape of leftovers” created by Angola’s lengthy civil war. Featuring images of mass graves, eerily solitary landscapes, and remnants of war, the series underscores the physical scarring of the landscape resulting from human interaction. The featured works are making their premiere in Europe as part of this exhibition and are also on view in a solo presentation of the artist’s work at the Walther Collection Project Space in New York City through July 15, 2011.

The White Box, the Walther Collection’s main exhibition space, features photography and video on each of its three floors. On the ground level visitors encounter Ângela Ferreira’s newly commissioned installation, For Mozambique, which explores the legacy of modernist architecture and its present every-day use in post-colonial Africa through the juxtaposition of archival and contemporary filmic images. The second floor gallery presents eight color panoramas from Ractliffe’s series, Johannesburg Inner City Works (2000 – 2004), each of which capture multiple images of a neighborhood within the city and stitches them together into one united, expansive frame.

The main exhibition gallery on the lower level features works by Jane Alexander, Peter Friedl, David Goldblatt, Sabelo Mlangeni, Zanele Muholi, Penny Siopis, Mikhael Subotzky, and Guy Tillim. Organized by artist, the 61 works on view include images of architectonic structures, construction sites, forgotten rural areas, precarious public spheres, and social rituals and migration within Southern Africa. These works resonate with Mitch Epstein’s American Power project (2004 – 2008), depicting energy production sites in the United States and the repercussions of industrialization and expansion on the American landscape.