Calendar

opening hours:
Thu: 12am-5pm, Sun: 3pm-5pm

Venue:
New gallery for contemporary art in the Häselburg Gera
Burgstr. 12
07545 Gera


Partner:
Kulturstiftung Thüringen und der SV SparkassenVersicherung


The exhibition is the result of intensive artistic research by Heidi Specker, Professor of Photography at the HGB, who studied the biography and work of Gera avant-garde photographer Aenne Biermann (1898-1933) as part of a Hertie working scholarship at the Häselburg Gera 2023. Specker not only examines Biermann's photographic work, but also the fate of her 4,000 negatives confiscated by the Nazis in 1940. Only around 300 original prints, which Biermann had developed herself, are preserved today in international museums. Based on this loss, Specker approaches Aenne Biermann's work with great sensitivity. Specker sees her artistic exploration of Biermann as work on memory: she not only visited various archives where Biermann's remaining photographs are kept, but also went in search of traces in her home town of Gera. The city of Gera is thus embedded in a discourse of remembrance, with questions such as "What should be remembered and what must not be forgotten?" establishing a link to the current political reality in the new federal states. Specker, who lives in Berlin and Leipzig, explores these questions and juxtaposes her photographs with those of Biermann.
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