Mayor's Rooms in Germany

Photographs by Jörg Winde

Jörg Winde

From 2005 to 2011, the photographer Jörg Winde (born 1956) visited more than one hundred and twenty city hall buildings in Germany to document the mayors’ offices there. The results of his research were published in the book Bürgermeisterzimmer in Deutschland (2012). Now, a selection of these photographs is on view in Berlin following stopovers in Dortmund and Osnabrück.

Winde explores notions of the representation of power in the rooms of the local government. How are power structures articulated here? Can these be perceived in photographs? The exhibition bears the features of an installation: the large-scale enlargements are shown in the historic office of a Berlin borough mayor. Room and images are closely connected, while the designated and designating interlock. Since 2017, the landmarked room in the Rathaus Tiergarten (architect: Richard Ermisch, 1937) has been used as an exhibition venue. For Winde’s work Bürgermeisterzimmer in Deutschland, it offers the perfect setting.