Witches in Exile at "Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles" Photo Festival

"Witches in Exile" will be featured at the 2025 edition of Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles, one of the world’s most influential photography festivals. Since 1970, the festival has drawn artists, galleries, and photography enthusiasts from around the globe to Arles, France, offering a platform for innovative, experimental, and documentary photography. Each year, approximately 160,000 visitors attend the festival, which is renowned for shaping the contemporary photography scene and supporting both established and emerging talents.

In 2025, the festival’s theme, “Defiant Images – Photography as an Instrument of Resistance and Social Change,” will bring together 160 artists across 46 exhibitions at 26 venues throughout the city. Arles, often referred to as the world capital of photography, continues to inspire artistic and social discourse through its diverse programming.

The "Witches in Exile" exhibition will be presented at the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation (MRO), a central venue of the festival specializing in socially engaged, documentary photography. The MRO’s 2025 program, titled "Sortilèges," explores themes of mysticism, magic, and occult worlds, inviting visitors to question beliefs that challenge social norms and to reflect on the boundaries between the visible and the invisible.

The exhibition that addresses the persecution of women accused of witchcraft, offering a powerful visual narrative that amplifies the voices of those marginalized by such accusations.

Presenting "Witches in Exile" at this internationally recognized festival, highlights the ongoing relevance of its subject matter and calls for greater awareness and solidarity with women affected by witch hunts worldwide.

CAWA CAMPAIGN: 16 DAYS | 16 WOMEN | 16 DEMANDS

Ann-Christine Woehrl in Accra, Ghana

At the end of 2024, Ann-Christine Woehrl supported the Ghanaian Coalition Against Witchcraft Accusations (CAWA) on site in Accra, Ghana, with her portraits from the series "Witches in Exile."

CAWA is a coalition of various social actors dedicated to combating witch hunts and gender-based violence in northern Ghana.

In alignment with the 16-day international UN Women campaign against gender-based violence, CAWA and Ann-Christine Woehrl are developing their own 16-day campaign to end witch hunts in northern Ghana, organizing an exhibition titled: 16 Days, 16 Women, 16 Demands.

The exhibition was  presented on November 19 at a press conference at Christ the King Church in Accra, Ghana, together with a petition read by Prof. John Azumah (The Sanneh Institute).

Each portrait is accompanied by one of 16 demands to end the persecution of alleged witches, calling on the Ghanaian government and the President to pass the anti-witchcraft accusations bill. By displaying these demands alongside the photographs, the exhibition amplifies the voices of marginalized women. It is a call to both local and global audiences to stand in solidarity with the women of northern Ghana and to support CAWA’s commitment to justice and the protection of women’s rights.

A particularly powerful aspect of the exhibition was the personal presence of the women portrayed by Ann-Christine Woehrl—women who have been persecuted and who, to this day, must live with the stigma in the so-called "witch camps."

This joint campaign has also inspired Ann-Christine Woehrl to launch ARTIST IMPACT, her own platform for showcasing artistic projects that address urgent social and political issues.

WITCHES IN EXILE and DARKLIGHT

Photographs by ANN-CHRISTINE WOEHRL

On the occasion of her exhibition at the Museum Fünf Kontinente, LEPI ARTS in Munich is showing a photographic dialogue with WITCHES IN EXILE and DARKLIGHT by artist Ann-Christine Woehrl.

The theme is isolation. The fundamental, recurring subject of Ann-Christine Woehrl's work. However, the perspective and approach of the two photo series could hardly be more different and thus illuminate the photographer's artistic spectrum.

Information on the pop-up exhibition HERE.

                     

LEPI ARTS Pop-up Galerie
Ismaninger Str.3
81675 Munich
info@lepi-arts.com
+49 152 079 501 46 I www.lepi-arts.com

Duration:
24.04. - 26.07.2024
Opening hours:
Wed 14-18h, Thu-Fr 11-15h
and by appointment.

WITCHES IN EXILE at Museum Fünf Kontinente extended until June 2, 2024
Maximilianstrasse 42, 80538 Munich
Opening hours:
Tue - Sun 9.30- 17.30h

The Exhibition at the Museum Fünf Kontinente

The exhibition at the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich attracted a large audience, with around 12,000 visitors learning about the fate of women in Ghana. Through numerous guided tours and a special event featuring Reverend Professor John Azumah from Ghana (Chairman of The Sanneh Institute and the Coalition Against Witchcraft Accusations (CAWA)—visitors gained a comprehensive understanding of the situation in Ghana.

As one of the key advocates, Professor Azumah plays a crucial role in ensuring that accusations of witchcraft will be treated as a criminal offence in Ghana in the future.

MUSEUM FÜNF KONTINENTE

Maximilianstraße 42 I 80538 MÜNCHEN
Opening hours: Tue–Sun, 9.30 am–5.30 pm

U4, U5 Lehel
S-Bahn Isartor
Tram 16 & 19 Maxmonument

further information: http://www.museum-fuenf-kontinente.de/

...an UPDATE on site

Text: Anja Pinter-Rawe

An important milestone has been reached: at the end of July this year the law against the persecution of witches has been passed by the Ghanaian parliament. The task now is to communicate and implement the law.

Ann-Christine Woehrl travelled to Ghana in October 2023 to get an up-to-date picture of the situation and to meet the women from her Witches in Exile portrait series.

In the capital Accra, she meets experts on the subject of witch-hunts, conducts numerous interviews and researches the press archives with the support of Ghanaian historian Gertrude Nkrumah.

From Accra, the journey then takes her to the Northern Region.

This is where the so-called witch camps are located This is where Ann-Christine Woehrl reunites with the women she portrayed for Witches in Exile between 2009 and 2013.
 

She is no longer the stranger she was back then, carrying a camera and asking questions.
Today she is a confidante who comes back to listen to these women as they share their experiences with her.

In cooperation with Simon Ngota, the founder of the Ghanaian NGO Witch-hunt Victims Empowerment Project, Ann-Christine Woehrl started the Witches in Exile project and has been drawing attention to the problem of witch-hunting in Ghana for over 10 years now with a large number of exhibitions and the publication of the photo book Witches in Exile.

The artist has made raising awareness of the stigmatisation of women worldwide, her personal concern. She tells the stories of the women and tries to generate support for the women with her work.


In the Northern Region, things have changed for some women. Thanks to the efforts of the NGO, some have been reintegrated into their communities. Safuna and her son no longer live in the so-called witch camp, but now live with her family.


While the political course is being reset in the capital Accra on the issue of witch-hunting, Banabas Dalabra is pushing ahead with Simon Ngota's work on the ground.

Under the new name Outcast Support Project, the NGO continues to campaign against witch hunts through education and persuasion and is helping to ensure that the new law does not remain a hollow phrase.

The current debate on this topic in Ghana is the reason for the exhibition at the Museum Fünf Kontinente

In this exhibition, Ann-Christine Woehrl complements her artistic position with current documentation of the situation in Ghana - in words, photographs and film.

Senam Okudzeto illustrates the socio-political context of the topic in her multimedia installation.

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Our book WITCHES IN EXILE is on the SHORTLIST at the
Eiger Foundation African Photobook of the Year Awards.

The Leipzig Photobook Festival will showcase all 17 books selected from over 4000 submissions as the best photobooks of the year.

From 29-30 April 2023 at the GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst ,Johannisplatz 5-11, 04103 Leipzig.

Programme flyer for download.

Ann-Christine Woehrl: Witches in Exile

Exhibition in the context of the Freiburg Film Forum at the Centre Culturel Français Freiburg
Vernissage: Thursday 20 April 2023, 19:00h
Welcome: Florence Dancoisne, CCF and Werner Kobe, Filmforum
Introduction: Ann-Christine Woehrl

Guided tour for school classes with Ann-Christine
Woehrl: Friday 21 April, 11:00 h

Our book WITCHES IN EXILE at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Hall 4.0, booth F20.

Traveling exhibition 21I22: The German Photo Book Award shows the winners of the competition at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

WITCHES IN EXILE has made it to the SHORTLIST of the German Fotobuchpreis.

SILVER in the category conceptual-artistic photo book.

Booksigning

Friday, July 8, 3 pm
Fondation Manuel-Rivera-Ortiz,
18 rue de la Calade, 13200 Arles, France

at KEHRER Publishing

Witches in Exile & Darklight

Photographs by Ann-Christine Woehrl

14. June - 14. July 2022
exhibition opening 14. July starting 18 h

PRAXIS
Cyril Kazis
Bäumleingasse 9
CH-4051 Basel

art@praxisart.org
+41 79 320 60 23

www.praxisart.org

opening hours 
During the Photo Basel & Art Basel fair
14 June -19 June 2022: 17h - 20h and during the day by appointment.

20 June - 14 July 2022
The exhibition can be visited daily by appointment.

PRAXIS  I  Cyril Kazis I +41 79 320 60 23  I  art@praxisart.org
Ann-Christine Woehrl  I acw@ann-christine-woehrl.com

BOOK PRESENTATION
Saturday 18 June 2022  18 h I  PRAXIS

ARTIST TALK
Friday 1 July 2022 18 h I  PRAXIS

The book Witches in Exile is available at Galerie PRAXIS and at Photo Basel at the ARTCO Gallery boot.

Präsentiert von ARTCO und LEPI Art

vom 10.September bis zum 10. Dezember 2021
im
LEPI Studio in den Spreestudios
Galerie und Showroom
Köpenicker Chaussee 4
10317 Berlin

Öffnungszeiten
Die Ausstellung kann täglich nach Absprache besichtigt werden

Termine*
BOOKSIGNING PARIS PHOTO
Ann-Christine Woehrl
Samstag, 13. November 2021
16 Uhr
Stand SE 16, Kehrer Verlag
Paris Photo, Grand Palais Ephemere, Avenue Pierre Loti, F-75007 Paris

ARTIST TALK
Der Experte und Kurator Hans-Michael Koetzle
im Gespräch mit den Fotografinnen.
Samstag, 30. Oktober 2021
im LEPI Studio

Kontakt
ARTCO I  Simon Melchers I  simon@artco-ac.de
LEPI Art I Anja Pinter-Rawe I anja@witches-in-exile.art

* Bitte beachten Sie die aktuellen Corona Schutzmaßnahmen und die 3-G-Regel.