FRANKFURT.- The international photography triennial RAY Fotografieprojekte Frankfurt/RheinMain returns between 24 May and 9 September 2018 to present outstanding contemporary photography and related media at over ten venues in Frankfurt and the region. For the first time, RAY will open with a festival kick-off. From 24 to 27 May photography fans, international experts of the medium as well as artists are invited to Frankfurt to explore photography and topics surrounding the RAY 2018 theme EXTREME. With over fifteen partners and a variety of public events RAY 2018 once again offers a summer of intriguing photographic highlights.

RAY 2018 EXTREME
Through a multitude of correlating exhibitions organised under this RAY edition’s theme of EXTREME the selected artists reflect upon social transformation, concepts of identity, and aesthetic tendencies in the twenty-first century. Here, RAY 2018 focuses on constellations that explore marginal fields. The success of the extreme has always been inextricably tied to photography. What makes the extreme especially virulent today is the over-abundance and unlimited availability of digitally circulating information and images that demand an economy of attention.

The more extraordinary, nonconformist and marginal, the more attention is received. The extreme triggers the wish to capture it in an image and make it available for future generations. The resulting images are both objects of proof and photographic expression of a fascination with the extraordinary. Thus, RAY 2018 focuses on forms of the extreme beyond the spectacle. However, the point where the norm ends and the deviation begins is constantly subject to change. The reference to the extremeness of one position sometimes only becomes apparent when directly confronted with another position that creates an anti-pole with its opposing substance, its image vocabulary or artistic strategy. The notion of the extreme is always to be considered in the context of its time and in dialogue with others.

RAY 2018 EXTREME presents exhibitions of the Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie hosted at the Kunstforum of TU Darmstadt; Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in The Cube (Eschborn); Fotografie Forum Frankfurt; Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; and MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main.

The curatorial concept of RAY 2018 EXTREME was again developed by curators of the participating institutions and collections of photography in Frankfurt and the region: Anne-Marie Beckmann (Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation), Peter Gorschlüter (MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main), Alexandra Lechner (Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie), Celina Lunsford (Fotografie Forum Frankfurt), and Matthias Wagner K (Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main).
 
RAY 2018 PARTNER PROJECTS and RAY PLUS
As part of the overall RAY 2018 exhibition programme the DZ BANK Kunstsammlung, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, Marta Hoepffner-Gesellschaft für Fotografie e.V. im Stadtmuseum Hofheim and the Nassauische Kunstverein Wiesbaden present their own exhibitions, which broaden the scope of the theme EXTREME with multilayered perspectives within contemporary photography.

Next to RAY EXTREME, RAY PLUS informs about independent photography exhibitions taking place in the Rhine/Main region during RAY 2018. This includes the group exhibition “Partial Truth. Aspects of the Documentary within Photography” at the MMK 2 of the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst (24.03.—9.09.2018), the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2018 at the MMK 3 of the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst (22.6.—09.09.2018), and the monographic exhibition of the photographer Ursula Schulz-Dornburg at the Städel Museum (04.07.—16.09.2018).

RAY 2018 Festival Kick-off and accompanying programme
For the first time, RAY 2018 launches with an abundant four-day festival programme in which the invited artists, renowned academics and experts of different fields jointly investigate the topic EXTREME in talks, keynotes, and workshops in order to generate sustainable impulses for art practitioners, cultural institutions, and the general public. The Kick-off will be hosted at the MMK 3 of the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main. During the Festival Kick-off RAY 2018 will also offer a diverse education programme that invites children, teenagers and adults to explore the medium photography and aspects of the triennial theme enabling participation on several levels.

Moreover, RAY 2018 is organising the premiere of a Master Class workshop with the artist Arno Rafael Minkkinen in collaboration with the HfG Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach, Hochschule Darmstadt, Kunsthochschule Mainz as well as the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Städelschule. The results will be presented in an exhibition at the festival hub. With this, RAY fosters an exchange between the regional art academies and international artists in the field of photography and offers young artists a public platform. The Master Class workshop is made possible by the support of Olympus and the Crespo Foundation. Additionally, RAY 2018 continues its youth proramme RAY JUNIOR that will offer workshops for schools in the Rhine/Main region.