with Sven Johne, artist
and Falk Haberkorn, artist

In the spring of 2020, Falk Haberkorn and Sven Johne began their research exploring municipal archives in the former East Germany, systematically screening the photographic holdings of the 1990s with the aim of producing a representative synopsis focusing largely on the once highly industrialised regions of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, which were subject to massive structural change following German reunification. Among the many goals of the project, the two artists were keen to discover how far the profound transformations across the whole of the former East Germany and its society are also reflected in the images held in public archives: what was then considered worthy of the archive? What materials were included? How were they filed? How were they placed on record? What image do these photographs draw of a period of radical historical upheaval, both within and beyond the former East Germany?