In her site-specific works, Stephanie Kiwitt (b. 1972 in Bonn, lives in Halle) develops distinct photographic perspectives for each project, translating them into different modes of presentation. Kiwitt’s interest lies in the careful analysis of everyday places – car parks, fitness centres and discount supermarkets – that reflect the defining phenomena of contemporary life. In her recent works Flächenland and fortlaufend (both 2022), she juxtaposes landscapes with fragments of architectural surfaces, placing subjective narratives and photographic techniques in dialogue. The interconnected series depict living environments in Saxony-Anhalt shaped by economic and social processes, whose transformation remains ongoing. The installation was developed specifically for the exhibition space.
Jens Klein (b. 1970 in Apolda, lives in Leipzig) works primarily with found photographs. He composes his series from materials held in photographic archives, developing his own visual narratives from them. His practice documents and questions the use – and at times the misuse – of photography. None of the images Klein employs were originally produced with artistic intentions, and the photographers often remain anonymous. More often than not, these photographs were taken for practical purposes, primarily to preserve people, scenes or objects in memory.
His series Bewerberinnen/Bewerber (Applicants, 2017), for example, can be read as a historical document reflecting the history of photography itself. Consisting of passport photographs of scholarship recipients from the archive of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst e. V., dating from 1950 to 2012, the series illustrates how both self-representation and the photographic medium have changed over time: from black and white to colour, from analogue to digital photography, and from carefully staged studio portraits to quick photo-booth snapshots.
At first glance, the methods behind Matthias Zielfeld’s (b. 1976 in Esslingen am Neckar, lives in Leipzig) photographic essays appear almost performative. das heft deutschland 6, for instance, features photographs taken in an Aldi supermarket in Leipzig: people browsing newspapers, checking shopping lists, queuing at the checkout or reading lists of ingredients. Zielfeld captures moments of everyday banality. In reality, however, his aim is to test and photographically reproduce the atmosphere of social spaces and patterns of social behaviour. His photographic forays deliberately take him through crowded public squares, busy road junctions and construction sites.
Zielfeld titles his photographic series das heft deutschland (The Germany Issue), with each instalment following its own distinct concept. “In each issue, I offer a particular perspective on something that I call ‘Germany’. I expect an interference between the title and the content of each issue.”
— Matthias Zielfeld
The exhibition is supported by:
