In Search of Existing Time

Berlin 1989/90

Lena Szankay, Rolf Zöllner

The exhibition shows images of Berlin taken immediately after the Wall came down, right in the here and now. The two photographers’ works speak not of nostalgia, but of a great curiosity coming from two people, with very different backgrounds, wandering the streets and recording the present moment.

Lena Szankay portrays the precarious lives of students and people in the alternative scene, the spirit of optimism and change, the magical effect the rapidly changing city has on this young woman from Argentina. Berlin is both rehearsal space and stage, but the photography student is neither actress nor audience. She, too, is trying things out, and she finds images that represent the esprit of a Kreuzberg generation.

On the other hand, Rolf Zöllner is a born Berliner, although he too is on a journey of discovery. After growing up in the Eastern part of the city, he had already established himself as a photographer when the Berlin Wall fell and his radius of urban movement literally doubled in size. His focus is on the city’s inhabitants and the (partly absurd) situations they find themselves in.

(Julie August)