News

Johanna-Maria Fritz's work is currently being presented in three solo exhibitions, two of which are in Germany (Berlin and Aachen) and one in Belgium. There, The Verduyn Gallery in Moregem is showing her long-term work "Like a Bird" about circus in Muslim countries.

The ARTCO Gallery presents Fritz's series "A Grave in the Garden" in Aachen as well as the solo exhibition "Jenseits der Grenzen" in Berlin as part of the EMOP. Johanna-Maria Fritz was one of the first foreign photojournalists in Ukraine in the spring of 2022 and took photographs in Butscha, Kharkiv and the Donbas, among other places. 

Opening „Jenseits der Grenzen“, Berlin: 3.3.2023, 17pm 

Duration: 2.3. bis 15.4.2023 

Duration „Im Garten ein Grab“, Aachen: bis 25.2.2023 

Duration „Like a Bird“, Belgien: bis 19.3.2023 

Parallel to the European Month of Photography (EMOP), the Gallerie Poll in Berlin-Mitte is showing the solo exhibition "Aiming High" by Frank Schinski. From 2017 to 2020, Schinski photographed job fairs, job interviews, castings and assessment centres in various European countries. In the process, he observed all those involved, who are caught up in a seemingly firmly defined choreography of imaginary expectations. He focuses on the interactions between the individual and the world of work, which determine large areas of personal life. The exhibition provides an insight into the project, which will soon be published in its entirety as a book. 

Opening: 2.3.23, 6pm 

Duration: 3.3. until 15.4.2023 

More information here.

Sibylle Bergemann (1941-2010) is one of the most important German photographers of the past decades. The exhibition "Sibylle Bergemann. Photographien", developed in cooperation with OSTKREUZ, the Akademie der Künste and the ifa (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations), presents the complete oeuvre of the renowned photographer. Bergemann worked serially, but also documented themes over a longer period of time.

Currently and until May 3, 2023, the touring exhibition "Sibylle Bergemann. Photographien" can be seen at the Muzeum Narodowe / National Museum in Gdansk in Poland. It presents the complete works of the well-known OSTKREUZ photographer.

More information here.

Heinrich Holtgreve will give a workshop on "Artificial Intelligence for Dummies" at Galerie F3 - Freiraum für Fotografie in Berlin-Kreuzberg. This will take place as part of the workshop series "Rich and Famous". In the workshop, Holtgreve will give an insight into the available AI tools - such as Dall-E, Midjourney, DeepL and ChatGPT. In addition, legal questions will also be addressed, such as: "What were the algorithms trained with?", or: "Which stereotypes are reproduced by the AI tools?" and: "How can AI tools be used artistically?". Registration for the workshop is now open via Gallery F3. 

Date: 27.2.2023, 10am to 5pm. 

More information here.

A discussion titled "Deutsche Reinheit - Migrant:innen, der Osten und die Dominanzgesellschaft" (German Purity - Migrants, the East and the Dominant Society) will take place in Tobias Kruse's extended solo exhibition "Deponie" at ARTCO Gallery. Based on Naika Foroutan's thesis that East Germans are also migrants, Marion Brasch (author, "Ab jetzt ist Ruhe", 2012), Behzad Karim Khani (author, "Hund, Wolf, Schakal" 2022) and photographer Tobias Kruse will talk with moderator Anne Waak (author, podcast "Sibylle Bergemann. Die Frau hinter den Bildern", 2022) about the pressure to adapt and experiences of degradation in Germany between 1990 and today. 

Date: 17.2.2023, 7pm 

Duration: until 18.2.2023 

Further information here.
 

Anne Schönharting has photographed people in their apartments in Berlin-Charlottenburg for over ten years. The images in her series HABITAT, whose title refers to a living space, are interiors, portraits, still lifes, stagings of the photographer and at the same time documentation: gestures, postures, objects and furnishings of the living spaces are an expression of the social status and personal self-image of those portrayed. The photographer, whose eye is trained on the Old Masters, entered into this very special cosmos with an open mind and with pleasure. At the same time, the idea of a bygone, upper-middle-class Charlottenburg seems to shimmer through her fine pictorial compositions.

Anne Schönharting's photographs now enter into a dialogue with the historic Charlottenburg Art Collection and its 19th-century works and the Berlin Secession at the Villa Oppenheim. Prosperity and the need for recognition had favored an urban collection policy at the beginning of the 20th century. The need to represent oneself in and with images can be seen in both pictorial worlds. Painting and photography share questions of representation: composition, light mood, and materiality are, today as a hundred years ago, carefully placed pictorial means. Fur and brushwork, curiosities and preciousness, figures and coloration - the dialogue between the paintings and the photographs opens up a multitude of references.

Opening: Wednesday, 08.02.23, 6:30 p.m.

Duration: 09.02. - 21.05.23.

More information here. 

The Artco Gallery in Aachen presents the solo exhibition "A Grave in the Garden" by Johanna Maria Fritz. The works shown here were created during the first months of the war in the Kyiv region, in Irpin and Butscha. Since the beginning of November, Johanna has been traveling again in Ukraine to document the consequences of the war, most recently in the Donbas and at the turn of the year in Kyiv.

Opening: 17th January at 6 pm

Duration: 18.01- 25.02.23

More information here.

The Edvard Munch House Warnemünde shows in the group exhibition "nowhere - on persons and landscapes" works by eight Norwegian and German photographers, including Espen Eichhöfer. In his series "Papa, Gerd, und der Nordmann", the German-Norwegian photographer Espen Eichhöfer addresses his personal understanding of home by turning to his Norwegian family and his birthplace, which is remote in the Norwegian forests. The individual images condense into a narrative about experiencing one's own origins and reflect his doubts about the consistent concept of home.

Date Opening: 17.12.22, 7 p.m.

Duration: 18.12.22 to 19.2.23

More information here.

ARTCO-Gallery presents Tobias Kruse's solo exhibition "Deponie" in new spaces in Berlin-Schöneberg. For this work, the photographer went in search of the traces and scars of a time that still casts its shadow on the present: the years after the reunification in East Germany. Tobias Kruse's work "Deponie" was created as part of the "recommended Olympus Fellowship" program and was exhibited at the Haus der Photographie of the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt and FOAM Amsterdam. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalog published by spectorbooks. The exhibition will be accompanied by a moderated artist talk with book signing.

Opening: 15.12.22, 6 p.m.

Artist talk with book signing: 17.12.22, 5 p.m.

Duration: 16.12.22 until 28.1.23

Further information here.

Anne Schönharting's solo exhibition "Habitat", for which she portrayed people in their Charlottenburg apartments over a period of ten years, can be seen at the Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin-Schöneberg until Sunday, December 11. At the finissage there will be a tour of the exhibition with Anne Schönharting and Barbara Esch Marowski, director of the Kommunale Galerien Tempelhof-Schöneberg.

Date: 11.12.22, 4 p.m.

Further information here.

Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler present their new book "Lissabon 87/88" at Galerie Springer in Fasanenstraße, recently published by Hartmann Books and designed by Florian Lamm. In 1987 and 1988, the Mahlers traveled to Lisbon with author Wolfgang Kil to photograph and describe the city and its people for a book project for Leipzig's Brockhaus Verlag. It was a rare opportunity for the photographers, who were well-known in the GDR at the time, to take a look in front of the Iron Curtain. But the book, which was planned for 1989, could not be published; the pictures and contact sheets disappeared for years in an archive, from which they did not reappear until 2021. Sifting through these photos, it turned out that "Lisbon" was actually the Mahlers' first joint project, long before they were to consciously decide on co-authorship for the first time. The book features black-and-white street photographs in the best sense of the word, taken while strolling in the unfamiliar city that fascinated the small group of travelers.

Date: 8.12.22, 7 p.m.

Further information here.

Until December 5, our billboard exhibition "Pictures from the Twin City" can be seen in public spaces in Bergisch Gladbach, Borna and Munich. This exhibition brings pictures taken by our photographers Emile Ducke, Johanna-Maria Fritz, Mila Teshaieva and Sebastian Wells, who have been regularly documenting the war in Ukraine since the end of February, to the German partner cities of the places where they were taken. Thus, Munich is the twin city of Kyiv, Bergisch Gladbach is the twin city of Butscha and Borna is the twin city of Irpin. Previously, the posters were also seen in Leipzig, Nuremberg, Memmingen and Freiburg. Presented on large-format billboards in the urban space, the exhibition aims to draw attention to the ongoing plight of the Ukrainian population and to appeal to the solidarity of residents to get involved in helping refugees. The project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Duration: until 5.12.22

Further information here.

Linn Schröder is represented with works from her series "I also think family pictures", which is unlimited in duration and motifs, in the internationally mounted group exhibition "Family Affairs. Family in Contemporary Photography" at the Kunsthalle Erfurt. In this exhibition, put together by Ingo Taubhorn, curator of the Haus der Photographie / Deichtorhallen Hamburg, more than 20 photographic positions take up the theme of "family". In Hamburg, the exhibition was only on view for a short time due to corona, in Erfurt as a follow-up it will be shown over twelve weeks.

More information here 

From 22.11. - 05.12.22 OSTKREUZ shows the photo exhibition "Pictures from the twin city" about the war in Ukraine. The innovative exhibition in public spaces takes place in the seven German twin cities of the Ukrainian places where the photographs were taken.

In Munich, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Freiburg, Bergisch Gladbach, Borna and Memmingen, works by OSTKREUZ photographers Emile Ducke, Johanna Maria Fritz, Mila Teshaieva and Sebastian Wells will be presented at prominent, publicly visible locations in the respective city areas.

The images do not depict atrocities, but capture current events in the twin cities to draw attention to the ongoing plight of the Ukrainian population. The exhibition "Pictures from the Twin City" was conceived and realized by the agency OSTKREUZ, financed by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Click here for more information and to view the bill pictures of the exhibition.

After stops at Hamburg's Deichtorhallen, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt and FOAM Amsterdam, Tobias Kruse's work "Deponie" (2019/20) can now be seen in its entirety for the first time in Berlin. Galerie Artco will present the series in its new space at Frobenstraße 1 in Berlin-Schöneberg starting December 16. Ingo Taubhorn, chief curator of the Haus der Photographie at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, wrote on the occasion of the opening in Hamburg: "Tobias Kruse combines the major social issues of our time with an explosive poetry inherent in his visual language. In his new group of works, "Deponie," he shows a personal approach to East Germany and finds in his black-and-white images a symbolic hinge between past and present." An extensive monograph will also be published by Spector Books in Leipzig. The publication is also planned for the end of this year. 

Opening: Dec. 15, 2022, 7 p.m. 

Further information here.

The Lippische Landesmuseum in Detmold is showing the group exhibition "Experiment HEIMAT", featuring Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler and Jörg Brüggemann. It asks: Is HEIMAT an emotion or a place? A reality or an ideal? Is it where we were born or grew up? Or here, where we live now? Does it perhaps not exist (anymore)? Is it an inescapable destiny or something we create for ourselves? These are just some of the questions addressed by the literature and photography project "Experiment HEIMAT". Commissioned by the Westphalian Literature Office in Unna, internationally renowned authors and photographers traveled to nine places in Westphalia with "homeland" connotations and explored the dazzling and controversial concept of HEIMAT. From the experiences of the artists on their travels and the impressions from their encounters with the local people, a kaleidoscope of highly diverse literary and visual interpretations of the theme of HOME developed. 

Duration of exhibition: 19.11. until 11.12.2022 

Further information here.

In 1987 and 1988, Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler, together with the author Wolfgang Kil, made two trips to Lisbon to take photographs for a book project of the Leipzig Brockhaus publishing house. For the photographers, who were already well-known in the DDR at the time, it was a rare opportunity to take a look in front of the Iron Curtain. But the book, planned for 1989, could not be published (anymore), like so many other book projects from the time shortly before the fall of the Wall. The pictures and contact sheets disappeared and did not reappear until 2021. Upon reviewing the photographs, it became clear that Lisbon can be considered the Mahlers' first joint project, long before they first made a conscious decision to co-author. Nevertheless, the shared signature that developed in Monalisen der Vorstädte, Seltsame Tage, die Kleinstadt and Ströme is already clear. They are black and white street photographs in the best sense. Lisbon '87/88 is a small book, carefully designed by Florian Lamm, published by Hartmann Books. It will be presented for the first time in November at Paris Photo at the publisher's booth. 

Paris Photo: 10-13 Nov. 2022. 

More information here.

We are very pleased to announce that Mila Teshaieva's first documentary film "When Spring came to Bucha" has been selected by the 35th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) for the category 'Luminuos' to premiere at the festival. The film, co-directed by Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz, depicts the three small Ukrainian towns of Borodyanka, Bucha and Irpin, which the Russian Army occupied for weeks during its campaign of conquest towards Kyiv. Immediately after the Russian troops were repulsed after a month of heavy fighting, Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz were on the ground. They accompanied the people as they rose from the still-smoking ruins, listening to them and giving them a voice. The IDFA has been held annually in Amsterdam since 1988 and is considered the world's largest film festival for documentaries. 

Duration Festival: 9-20.11.2022 

More information here.

Anne Schönharting gives a talk at a conference at the University of Bremen on her book and project "The Heritage" on the topic: The Hunting Room. The conference directs attention to exemplary spaces and spatially conceived imaginaries of the hunting as well as their colonial, social and gender implications. What in other families is the guest room, in Anne Schönharting's family was called the "Africa room." For four generations, the "Africa Room" was the place for great-grandfather Willy Klare's collection. With her own paintings and reproductions of inherited artifacts and photographs, Anne Schönharting embarks on an associative journey into a history unknown to her and consciously enters into a personal dialogue with her family's past, with German and European history, and with the very private as well as social colonial responsibility. 

Talk: Nov. 4, 2022 at 8 p.m. 

More information here.

As part of the exhibition "The New Abnormal" , which is currently on view at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg until November 6, Sebastian Wells, OSTKREUZ photographer and editor of the magazine soлomiya, discusses the topic "Into endlessness - Photographic reflections on the war in Ukraine" with his fellow photographers Mila Teshaieva and Daniil Russov. "It's not about photography, it's about me, my place, my history and the history of the whole world that is happening here right now," Mila Teshaieva wrote on March 3, 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion began, as the first entry in her Ukrainian War Diary for her eponymous work "Ukrainian Diary." How does one react as a photographer in Ukraine when suddenly a war begins that is unimaginable for many? What sense does one still see in photography when close friends suddenly become victims of missile attacks? Sebastian Wells asks his colleagues these and other questions during the artist talk, which was conducted in English and is now available online via Youtube. 

Link Online Artist-Talk here.