DEFFARGE & TROELLER. Stern-Features and Documentaries
Curated by Petra Steinhardt, Matthias Pfaller, Clara Bolin, & Catherine Richard
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
November 15, 2024 - February 23, 2025
French journalist Marie-Claude Deffarge (1924–1984) and Gordian Troeller (1917–2003) from Luxembourg stand for a political and critical journalism in Europe from the 1950s onwards. Both reported from more than 70 countries around the world, but preferably from the Middle East and the Global South. Their features were published especially in the 1960s in Stern magazine; their later films were broadcast on television. Troeller and Deffarge were never only interested in pointing out social injustices, but also in revealing their causes through analyses of sociopolitical structures. Extensive recognition, but also loud criticism resulted from this. With the first comprehensive retrospective combining photo and film features, the work of the two journalists can now be rediscovered.
In cooperation with the Centre national de l'audiovisuel, Luxembourg
