Press Release – Press Release – Press Release

Press Release – Press Release – Press Release – Press Release – Press Release
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In Kreuzberg, ''The look of the other'', the subject of the 5th European Month of Photography, prompts
a special resonance and a special contribution:
''In the Blink of an Eye. Standstill and Movement. Photography from Kreuzberg'' is the name of the
photo exhibition which shows the unknown and the unusual from the district which used to be at the
edge of Berlin. Glimpses of normal and alternative ways of life, memories in black and white. Much of it
inspired the State Republic, some of it vanished.
The occupation of the Rauch-Haus in 1971 became an example for self-administered youth- and
cultural centres, the Festival of May 1st at the Mariannenplatz was the blueprint for street festivals, as
were the violent demonstrations and house battles, for provoking the ruling system. A field of social
experiment. A wasteland of rubble after the riots on May 1st 1987. And before that, the everyday in
which the tinder was ready. Not only the ''rented barracks'' (tenements) were about to be demolished.
In the supposed quiet before the storm, the pictures from the 70s were so different from those of the
80s.
The West Berlin of the 1970s and ’80s – Kreuzberg, the Wall, dereliction. Many of those who lived here
had no other choice. Low rents in the ruins of war, the struggle for survival, brief moments of
happiness and permanent breakdowns. Old age in poverty, foreigners, children and neighbourhoods.
A world in the rubble of the past, nothing moving. New construction, such as the controversial NKZ,
old buildings had to give way. Without raising objection.
Resistance against the wrecking ball began. The photographers from Great Britain, Sweden and the
Germans who had come here from the old States moved in this terrain. They were Others, and it was
Others who looked back at them. Curiosity, disbelief, the alien. The tension was perceptible on both
sides. Taken long before the Kreuzberg mythos began, before Kreuzberg became the in-district, these
photographs are the legacy of a living space overshadowed by a perpetual grey haze. The colours on
the façades came later; the tourists too.
An exhibition that above all shows people who wanted to show Kreuzberg, not their back, but their
face. Which remains – as the blink of an eye.
With photography by Peter Gormanns, Michael Hughes, Ann-Christine Jansson, Wolfgang Krolow,
Horst Luedeking, Toni Nemes and Siebrand Rehberg – curated by Ellen Röhner and Erik Steffen
We look forward to seeing you at the opening on November 3rd at 5 PM.
Hans Panhoff, District Councillor, will greet the visitors.
Introduction: Erik Steffen
Music: Matt Grau, garbage-artist, musician and DJ, came to West-Berlin in 1983. Since 1987 living in
Kreuzberg, at first in the shadow of the Wall, now without. Many projects from "Bündnis für Stadl" to
"Kreuzberger Kasperletheater" with Frank-Kirk Ehm-Marks. Almost famous as guitarist of the SocialBeat-Icon Hadayatullah Hübsch. Besides bizarre own productions he presents a repertoire from Ton
Steine Scherben to Einstürzende Neubauten.
Venue: The Browse Gallery, Marheinekeplatz 15, 10961 Berlin
U 7 Gneisenaustraße, Bus 140 und 248
Opening times: Mon.–Fr. 8.00 AM – 8.00 PM , Sat. 8.00 AM – 6.00 PM
The Exhibition Project ''AugenBlicke. Stillstand und Bewegung. Fotografien aus Kreuzberg'' is a
cooperation between the Local Museum of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg with the Gesellschaft für
interregionalen Kulturaustausch e. V. and the Community Impulse Berlin e. V. An Exhibition within the
framework of the 5th European Month of Photography 2012
Sponsored by the Bezirkskulturfonds Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Events to accompany the Exhibition
In the Blink of an Eye. Standstill and Movement. Photography from Kreuzberg
Thursday, 15 th November 2012, 8:00 PM
SO 36 – Our life was more than a picture-book
Emotions and hardness, awakening and crash in and around the Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg from
1971 to 1989. A multimedial amok trip. Music, readings, projection from MDK to ENDART. Artists, house
occupiers and normals. Contemporary witnesses incl. H.-J.-Hillmann, Volker Hauptvogel, Klaus
Theuerkauf und Frank-Kirk Ehm-Marks.
Venue: Kreuzberg Museum, Adalbertstr. 95A, 10999 Berlin
Thursday, 29. November 2012, 20:00 Uhr
Standstill and movement. People in Kreuzberg – Photography
from the 70s and 80s
The Berlin Story Publishers presents the book ''Standstill and movement. People in Kreuzberg'' with
works by seven photographers, edited by Ellen Röhner and Erik Steffen: Extreme momentary images of
a Berlin District that at the time was neither mythos nor 'in'. A search for traces of faded memories,
which people and places left behind in pictures.
An event within the framework of Stadt Land Buch 2012, the German Publishers and Booksellers
Association
Venue: Kreuzberg Museum, Adalbertstr. 95A, 10999 Berlin
The book ''Standstill and movement. People in Kreuzberg – Photography from the 70s and 80s''
appears to accompany the Exhibition, edited by Ellen Röhner and Erik Steffen
Berlin: The Berlin Story Publishers, 2012, 19,80 €
128 pages, German and English
ISBN 978-3-86368-091-6