Since the advent of photography, reflections on human access to what we call reality and its translation through media have gained urgency. With the introduction of computer-generated images, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, the question remains more relevant than ever: Have reality and image switched roles? Is it even possible to distinguish between the two? The symposium On Reality, a collaboration of düsseldorf photo+ Biennale for Visual and Sonic Media and K21 Kunstsammlung NRW, will invite artists, researchers, philosophers, and media theorists to explore how visual media relates to the notion of reality, and to which extent the medium influences our perception and comprehension of it. 

On May 18, Sim Chi Yin will perform a performance lecture based on her decade-long project One Day We’ll Understand excavating her family history and that of the anti-colonial war in British Malaya. Threading through her personas as artist, researcher, granddaughter and mother, the piece takes us on an intimate journey interrogating the colonial archive, exploring paths out of the traumatic past and contemplating trans-generational memory and inheritances. 

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Image: Sim Chi Yin, Remnants #20, from ‘One Day We’ll Understand’, 2015-2018