Candida Höfer in In Si­tu: Pho­to Sto­ries on Mi­gra­tion

This ex­hi­bi­tion fea­tures per­so­n­al pho­to­graphs and in­ter­views with Yü­cel Aşçıoğlu, Tay­fun Demir, Chrysau­gi Died­erich, Onur Dül­ger, An­tonel­la Gi­u­rano, An­to­nios Go­gos, Zeynep Gür­soy, Alpin Har­renkamp, Ali Ka­natlı, Bengü Ko­catürk-Schus­ter, An­gela L., the Öz­dağ fam­i­ly, Mi­tat Özdemir, Asim­i­na Paradis­sa, Rosa Spi­ta­leri, Fikret Üçgüler, and So­fia and Ioan­na Zachara­ki. Ad­di­tio­n­al per­so­n­al pho­to­graphs come from Al­iba­ba G., Sal­ih G., Marie Claire Ip­pol­i­to, Ro­mo­lo di Sa­bati­no, and others who re­main un­named, which were pro­vid­ed by the Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter and Mu­se­um of Mi­gra­tion in Ger­many (DO­MiD).

The per­so­n­al pho­to­graphs are com­bined with pho­to­graphs of ur­ban life by Jörg Boström, Chargesheimer, Chris­tel Fomm, GAG Im­mo­bilien AG (Cologne), Heinz Held, Can­di­da Höfer, Kurt Holl, Ger­not Hu­ber, Rheinisch­es Bil­darchiv Köln, Ul­rich Till­mann, Schulz, Di­eter Storp, stu­dents at the Ruhr-Uni­ver­sität Bochum, Gue­nay Ulu­tun­cok, Man­fred Vollmer, Lud­wig Weg­mann, Eu­se­bius Wird­ei­er, a film by Edith Sch­midt-Mar­cel­lo and David Wit­ten­berg, and a video pro­ject by Ulf Aminde.

Pho­to­graphs of Cologne and other ci­ties in the Rhine­land from the pe­ri­od be­tween 1955 and 1989 vi­su­al­ize the con­s­tant changes brought about by the re­si­dents. Yet the sto­ries of mi­grant work­ers in pho­tog­ra­phy are bare­ly pre­sent in the public vi­su­al me­m­o­ry of th­ese ci­ties. For the first time, this ex­hi­bi­tion at the Mu­se­um Lud­wig will fo­cus on per­so­n­al pho­to­graphs. An im­por­tant start­ing point is doc­u­ments of sto­ries of mi­gra­tion from DO­MiD. In in­ter­views, the len­ders of the works in the ex­hi­bi­tion talk about their di­verse his­to­ries. They of­fer an ac­count of life in the ci­ty and how it was en­livened by their im­mi­gra­tion. Their per­so­n­al pho­to­graphs show how streets, build­in­gs, shops, bars, so­cial clubs, and parks be­come places of re­mem­brance and part of the ci­ty’s his­to­ry. The ex­hi­bi­tion deals with the role of pho­tog­ra­phy in this con­text. It com­bines th­ese new and sur­pris­ing ci­tys­capes with pho­to­graphs of ur­ban life by Chargesheimer, Can­di­da Höfer, and Ul­rich Till­mann from the col­lec­tion of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig as well as pho­to­graphs by Chris­tel Fomm, Ger­not Hu­ber, and Gue­nay Ulu­tun­cok, among others. Be­yond the fleet­ing ex­pe­ri­ences of life in the ci­ty, th­ese pho­to­graph­ic sto­ries of mi­gra­tion show the vari­ous ways in which peo­ple can find their place in a new ci­ty.

The ex­hi­bi­tion is a joint pro­ject with the Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter and Mu­se­um of Mi­gra­tion in Ger­many (DO­MiD). Manuel Go­gos and Au­ro­ra Ro­donò served as cu­ra­to­rial ad­vi­sors.

Cu­ra­tors: Ela Kaçel (ar­chi­tec­tu­ral his­to­rian, and guest cu­ra­tor) and Bar­bara En­gel­bach (cu­ra­tor)