Out of Focus: Rethinking Haiti in Munich
What does it mean to look at a place mostly through someone else’s lens? In Munich, Lenbachhaus’s exhibition “Out of Focus: Leonore Mau and Haiti” invites us to sit with that uncomfortable question.
Date: 4. November 2025 – 15. Februar 2026
Venue: Lenbachhaus, Munich
If you’re in Munich between 4 Nov 2025 – 15 Feb 2026, Lenbachhaus is a must-stop. “Out of Focus: Leonore Mau and Haiti” turns the museum into a space for looking, listening, and doubting what we think we see. The exhibition revisits German photographer Leonore Mau’s images of Haiti and explores how photographs can both reinforce and destabilise ideas of otherness.
Mau travelled to Haiti in the 1970s, during the dictatorship of Jean‑Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, together with writer Hubert Fichte as part of a long-term research project on Afro-diasporic religions. Many of her photographs appeared in the photo books Xango (1976) and Petersilie (1980), but the majority have remained in the archive, unseen. In these images, everyday life, dictatorship, spirituality, tourism, and beauty are entangled. Some pictures echo familiar, stereotype‑ridden views of Haiti and Vodou; others suggest a far more nuanced reality.
Rather than simply hanging prints on white walls, the artist collective U5 has built a multimedia, sensory environment around Mau’s archive. Images are layered, projected, partially obscured – literally slipping in and out of focus. A sound collage by artist and filmmaker Madafi Pierre further unsettles any easy sense of distance, pulling visitors into a dense atmosphere where seeing and listening become active, ethical choices.
The exhibition positions itself as a decolonial case study: how can European institutions work with archives shaped by colonial and postcolonial power relations? Cultural anthropologist and artist Gina Athena Ulysse, along with houngan, musician and ethnology director Erol Josué and others, contribute perspectives that challenge viewers to question who frames Haiti’s image – and for whom. Public programmes like “Relational Viewing” slow things down even more, inviting visitors to decide whether to encounter a photograph directly or only through its spoken description, and to reflect on the images they carry within themselves.
“Out of Focus: Leonore Mau and Haiti” is not a quick, scenic tour of another place. It’s an invitation to stay with ambivalence, where criticism and beauty coexist. If you’re in or near Munich this winter, plan a visit – and afterwards, head to artpiq.net to discover more emerging artists who are also reshaping how we see the world.
And if you’re browsing from afar, head to ARTPIQ to discover emerging artists who are still pushing, remixing, and renewing the space between art and everyday life.
Out of Focus: Rethinking Haiti in Munich. Photo © Lenbachhaus
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