Laurenz Berges. Place and memory
Cloppenburg and works from the Ruhr area
A collaboration with the Kunsthaus Nürnberg
June 12 – August 22, 2021 | Curated by Barbara Hofmann-Johnson
The exhibition "Laurenz Berges. Place and Memory. Cloppenburg and Works from the Ruhr Area" presents for the first time the complete series of color photographs of Cloppenburg from Laurenz Berges' early work. Created between 1989 and 90 in the artist's hometown, Cloppenburg, where he was born in 1966 and has lived in Düsseldorf for over 25 years, the series uses focused close-ups to explore the Lower Saxon district town, which can be considered typical of Lower Saxon towns and villages, in an aesthetically subtle and unpretentious manner. The series focuses not on the culturally and historically significant individual aspects, but rather on a landscape that discovers exemplary moments in the unspectacular and typical.
Although humans are largely absent from the images, the landscape fragments, in conjunction with residential buildings, functional structures, and some interior images in the series, always contain cultural-historical and sociological references. Early on, Laurenz Berges engaged with American documentary photography and explored the changing landscape image brought about by urban developments and movements such as "New Color Photography"—influences that become evident in the Cloppenburg series when applied to a German landscape.
In the context of international contemporary art photography, Laurenz Berges is primarily known for his photographic works of interiors and fragments of abandoned spaces and places. These include series such as "Kasernen" (Barracks) , with which he focused on abandoned barracks of the Russian army in East Germany in the early 1990s, as well as the "Etzweiler" series , featuring the interiors of abandoned villages in the lignite mining region around Düren. A large number of works have also been created in the Ruhr region in recent years. The exhibition presents several examples from this area, complementing the work on display in Cloppenburg.
Program
Friday | 01.02.2019, 19 clock
Opening of the exhibition “Laurenz Berges. Place and Memory. Cloppenburg and works from the Ruhr area”
Duration: 02.02.2019 - 31.03.2019
Saturday | 02.02.2019, 15 clock
Guided tour of the exhibition and artist talk with Laurenz Berges and Barbara Hofmann-Johnson, Director of the Museum of Photography Braunschweig and curator of the exhibition
Sunday tour"Laurenz Berges. Place and Memory"
The guided tour is included in the admission price.
Appointments: always Sunday From 4:00 pm: February 3, 2019, February 10, 2019, February 17, 2019, February 24, 2019, March 3, 2019, March 10, 2019, March 17, 2019, March 24, 2019
Thursday | 07.02.2019 and 07.03.2019/13/00, 20:00 - XNUMX:XNUMX.
Happy Thursday! Free admission every first Thursday of the month, extended opening hours until 8 pm + curator-led tour at 6 pm
Thursday | June 14.02.2019nd, 18, 30:XNUMX p.m
HAUM meets Museum of Photography: Non-places. Bold designs and picturesque melancholy.
Guided tours at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum & Museum of Photography Braunschweig
with Dr. Andreas Uhr, scientific trainee, Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings), Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, and Franziska Habelt MA, trainee, Museum für Photographie Braunschweig
Admission: 4 euros | Registration: booking.house@3landesmuseen
Meeting point and start: Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum
Sunday | 10.03.2019, 15:00h
Family management"Laurenz Berges. Place and Memory"
Tuesday | 19.03.2019, 18:30h
Regional memory revisited
As part of the event series “Jour fixe – Thoughts and Conversations on Photography” No. 4.
What is the significance of photography in the Braunschweig region and in Lower Saxony?
What events, moments, and places define a cultural identity?
The regular meeting will use the Laurenz Berges exhibition as an opportunity to reflect on the 2015/16 project "Regional Memory." We invite you to discuss the role of photography and cultural identity in the Braunschweig region and the state of Lower Saxony. The discussion will feature current works by members of the museum association and historical pieces from the museum's collection – with Anne Wriedt, Research Associate/Curatorial Assistant, Museum of Photography Braunschweig, and guests Thomas Blume, Michael Ewen, Irene Heimsch, and Jan Gäbler.
Saturday | 30.03.2019, 15:00h
Curator-led tour with Barbara Hofmann-Johnson, Director, Museum of Photography Braunschweig
Sunday | 31.03.2019, 16:00h
Finissage: “Laurenz Berges. Place and Memory”
Thomas Weski, curator (Berlin) in conversation with Laurenz Berges