Berlin Project II 1945–2018

Gallery hours

M–Su: 12–5 pm

Berlin Project II 1945–2018 presents a series of small- and medium-scale photographs of the facades of structures and buildings in contemporary Berlin. They show sections of neoclassic pillars, pediments, and walls with bullet holes and shrapnel damage from the battle for the city in 1945, which have been meticulously restored, carelessly patched, or left untouched and weathered. The surfaces’ condition of repair or neglect reflects a post-war period of changing economies and bluntly imposed political priorities. Although ubiquitous in most public areas, these bullet holes go mostly unnoticed and have become part of the patina of the urban landscape.

The images simultaneously function as stable records of a specific violent social history while also being abstracted, minimalist images of grids, varied textures, and subtle colours. They are formalist and architectural, walls on walls: compressing space, ignoring time, disassociated from their environment and context.