Rivers
eden levi am
Nominated by
Centre de la photographie Genève
"Rivers" is a project initiated by the artist, photographer and queer activist eden levi am during the pandemic, a distressing time marked by isolation, uncertainty and anxiety. Using primarily film, photography and video, and more recently performance, eden levi am’s artistic practice expresses a personal and affective view of the world, which ties with current social and political issues. From an intersectional feminist perspective, their work addresses issues relating to the body, gender, identities and their representations. Their latest body of work, Rivers, is no exception. The artist invited friends and acquaintances from the local queer community to be photographed in the rivers near Geneva. At this specific moment in time, in the midst of the pandemic and its broad-reaching implications in every person’s daily life, the river represented a safe and liberating space, outside of the white and heteronormative society and away from the news. These bodies of water welcomed and embraced the marginalised queer bodies of Rivers’ protagonists. Rather than generating further vulnerability, through the artist’s lens, nudity and deviance from societal norms become empowering and emancipating. The delicate black and white photographs appear to be suspended in time, highlighting the texture of the skin of the models as their bodies are drenched in water and soft sunlight. Inspired from different mythologies surrounding the river and its creatures, including the naiads, Rivers proposes a tender but determined counter-narrative to social norms surrounding the body.
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The Artist
eden levi am
Nominated in
2023
By
Centre de la photographie Genève
Lives and Works in
Geneva, Switzerland
eden levi am is an artist, photographer and queer activist based in Geneva. For several years, they have been developing a documentary approach with a focus on activism and intimacy. Using primarily film photography and video, and more recently performance, their artistic practice expresses a personal and affective view of the world, which ties with current social and political issues. From an intersectional feminist perspective, their work addresses issues relating to the body, gender, identities and their representations.
They graduated from the Vevey School of Photography (CEPV) in 2018. Their work has been exhibited and published in Switzerland and abroad since 2017. It was recently featured at Swiss and international venues and festivals such as Fesse-tival (Geneva, 2023), Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival (London, 2023), Musée d’art de Pully (Switzerland, 2017 & 2023), Urgent Paradise (Lausanne, 2022), Forde (Geneva, 2022), BØWIE Gallery (Geneva, 2022), Romantso Gallery Space (Athens, 2020), Space Grotesk (Basel, 2019), Centre de la photographie Genève (Geneva, 2019), and La Nef (Noirmont, Switzerland, 2019). Publications include Libération (2021) and Journal des Bains (2016–2022) as well as several exhibition catalogues. Most recently, they have been awarded the 2021 documentary photography grant of the City of Geneva. The resulting project, "Rivers", was published in 2023 as a monograph by Miami Books and presented as a solo show at Halle Nord in Geneva, accompanied by two performances in the context of the Fesse-tival (a festival fostering positive and inclusive visions of bodies, identities and sexualities).
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