New images exhibition by Clémentine Schneidermann and Charlotte James opens at National Museum Cardiff • Information & Blogs • Go to Cardiff

Ffasiwn presents a set of 56 pictures by French photographer Clémentine Schneidermann and Merthyr-born artistic director Charlotte James. The exhibition celebrates ten years of It’s Called Ffasiwn, a challenge cast from a shared love of images, trend and creativity that’s rooted in group.

Working beneath the studio title Bleak Fabulous, Schneidermann and James create work that’s socially-engaged and participatory. This exhibition presents greater than only a images challenge; it’s a long-term artistic collaboration with younger individuals from Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil. Since 2015 they’ve been working with the identical collaborators to co-create pictures that sit on the edges of documentary images, portraiture, trend and efficiency.

The ensuing photos search to reimagine perceptions of the area by way of images, by focussing on the creativeness and creativity of its future generations.

Clémentine Schneidermann, photographer mentioned:”It may be very particular for us to have our challenge celebrated at National Museum Cardiff, which began a grassroots challenge and developed as an epic collaboration. As the challenge reaches this milestone anniversary, we’re thrilled to exhibit it in Wales for the primary time in its entirety, that includes almost sixty prints, movies, and publications.”

The exhibition traces the evolution of It’s Called Ffasiwn over the past decade, from early works photographed as a part of Schneidermann’s preliminary artist residency in Abertillery, to newer collaborations. It options two movies made with the younger individuals, one among which incorporates behind-the-scenes footage from the challenge. The movies are introduced in a reimagined working girls’s membership that has been created by Schneidermann and James and gives a surreal glimpse into a number of the vernacular landscapes which have impressed the photographs.

Before every photoshoot Schneidermann and James hosted artistic workshops, giving the younger collaborators alternatives to customize their clothes and be taught expertise equivalent to stitching, images, styling and set design.

As a part of National Museum Cardiff’s supply across the Ffasiwn exhibition the Museum can be internet hosting some workshops of their very own with photographer Michael Alberry and dressmaker and facilitator Ffian Jones. There can be a night deliberate with Bleak Fabulous the artistic minds behind the exhibition.

Working with the communities within the valleys was particularly vital for Charlotte James whose upbringing in Merthyr Tydfil informs her work. Many of her tasks contain household, associates and native individuals as she explores alternative ways of collaborating by way of trend, movie and artistic workshops.

This just isn’t the primary time Bleak Fabulous’ work has been featured on the Museum, with the images that includes in exhibitions together with The Valleys (2024), The Rules of Art? (2021) and Women in Focus (2019).

Following the success of the The Valleys exhibition in 2024, Ffasiwn continues Amgueddfa Cymru’s dedication to spotlight community-focused tales and up to date Welsh images.

Curator Bronwen Colquhoun mentioned: “We are thrilled to be opening Ffasiwn in the photography gallery at National Museum Cardiff. Photographs from the project have featured in exhibitions we have staged in the past but this presents an opportunity to trace the evolution of the work over ten years, to show never-before-seen photographs, and to celebrate all that Clémentine, Charlotte and the young people have achieved through this collaboration.”

Amgueddfa Cymru’s exhibitions and public engagements programme is made doable because of gamers of Postcode Lottery.

Ffasiwn opens (23 May) and runs till April 2027. For extra data and to e book tickets go to: www.museum.wales