Ostblicke. Fotografien von Sophie Kirchner und Philipp Baumgarten

In the organizer's words:

What moves people in East Germany? 35 years after reunification, the exhibition shows two photo series that look at East Germany from an East German perspective. They explore the question of how people relate to their homeland, where traces of the GDR remain visible and where places are changing.

Since 2021, Berlin photographer Sophie Kirchner has been portraying young men in the East German federal states in her series "Staying" and letting them have their say: They talk about leaving, staying and coming back, about political developments and their involvement in clubs and subcultures.

In his photo archive "mitteldeutsch", Philipp Baumgarten documents everyday situations and snapshots between 2005 and 2022, primarily in his home town of Zeitz. In doing so, he observes what remains constant and how places in rural areas change at the same time.

The photographs are being shown together for the first time. The interplay creates an inventory of eastern Germany.