SALZBURG.- Since the turn of the millennium Véronique Bourgoin and Juli Susin have worked together on a wide network of projects and joint ventures; both live in Montreuil on the outskirts of Paris. The network itself is a complex web of real and fictitious labels, and both artists appear alongside other artists and under a variety of pseudonyms: Cosa Nostra Expérimentale, Ligne de Mire, Fabrique des Illusions 1 et 2, Atelier Reflexe, Silverbridge, Royal Book Lodge, M. Suzuki, Vero Cruz, Charlet Kugel, Dr. Snowball, Matière Première, Magnet River, and others.

In constructing her images for Les Labyrinthes du temps Véronique Bourgoin refers back to some of the experimental techniques of the early 20th century's avant-garde, e.g. collage, solarisation and staging, a methodology previously adopted in her earlier series (Vrai ou Faux?, WILLIE OR NOT WILLIE). Her photographs are frequently staged, thriving on anachronistic elements and featuring references to Surrealist imagery. At the FOTOHOF she has set out her works in a stunning arrangement on life-size wallpapers of real rooms, allowing the photographs to strike up a remarkable dialogue with the objects portrayed in these image spaces. This new installation, on show for the first time at the FOTOHOF exhibition, recreates a trompe-l'œil of the Paris apartments of Yola Noujam, where Véronique Bourgoin took a series of photographs for the Sweet Trouble Souls exhibition of Andy Hope 1930 and Silverbridge in 2007.

Juli Susin is showing a selection of photographs from various project series of recent years. These ambivalent photographic works taken between Moscow and Asunción in Paraguay consistently leave unanswered the question of documentation or staging. He refers to a psychological test for criminals used in the US in the 1940s. It comprises several figures and backgrounds which each individual then uses to portray their own truth − any similarities with existing persons are coincidental, yet assured!

Véronique Bourgoin, born in Marseille in 1964, lives and works in Montreuil (F)

Juli Susin, born in Moskau in 1966, lives and works in Montreuil, Berlin und Albisola