Inaccessible

Bruno Dorn, Alina Pempe, Christina Straße, Ingo Weckwerth

In an area of 2,000 m² at the heart of Berlin lies a garden, fenced in and gated, but missing a path. It is off limits, inaccessible to visitors. A glimpse of it can be caught from a distance: brightly hued meadows dotted with colour, undulating lines. The Steppengarten (steppe garden), begun in the 1950s, is now a garden monument.

Four photographers, each with their own perspective, study the place throughout the changing seasons. What’s true of the garden is true also of their images, which consist of moments in continuous change. The photographic dialogue is carried to the darkroom in the form of process: beyond the decorative appearance, the surface becomes permeable, opens up to a myriad of different spaces.

The attraction lies in the inaccessible, in the unexpected discoveries. Various historical photographic techniques (such as bromoil print, cyanotype, lumen print, photograms, salt print, photo engraving) – together with an openness for the unanticipated possibilities of the process – leave room for the unpredictable. The motif undergoes a natural abstraction; the pictorial composition is reduced to the essentials. Space is given to the inaccessible.