German photographic artist Talisa Lallai, who completed her degree at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf in 2016, sees photography not as merely a medium for images, but rather as a physical form of expression. The artist makes use of the medium of photography to capture fleeting moments and moods and tells stories in which real and invented events are merged. In her art, Lallai combines certain photographs with salvaged image material, which she reworks, re-photographs or presents anew through image details.

In the exhibition at the Kunstverein Reutlingen and in the catalog “Timbuktu,” conceived as an artist’s book, there appear apparently chance shots of the sea, of maps, of desert landscapes or of exotic animals, the significance of which only emerges upon closer inspection. Here, the oasis city of Timbuktu plays the role of an exotic allegory that points observers towards an indefinable place of longing. In “Timbuktu,” the idea of an “exotic south” can be considered to be indicative of colonial history and the exploitation of the African continent. At the same time, the sociopolitical critical approach links the images to form one complete work.