Wandern in Geschichte. Die Fotografie von Ulrich Wüst

In the organizer's words:

Ulrich Wüst's work became particularly well known in the 1980s for the numerous cityscapes he took in various places in the GDR. They show traces of the Second World War and the unchecked decay of historical buildings. However, the focus of his photographic interest was on the absurdities of urban situations caused by carelessness and ignorance as well as by destruction and uncontrolled growth. The photographer thus developed his very own visual form of architectural criticism, which has lost none of its forcefulness to this day, especially as it is not based on ideological arguments, but on a sense of phenomena that is as much at home with subtle humor as it is with irony.

Ulrich Wüst's photographs became known to a broad international audience through his invitation to documenta 14 in Kassel in 2017. Ulrich Wüst's photographic work, which deals with the subject of the German East in the broadest sense, can also be described as a pictorial archaeology of the present beyond the sunken GDR. These pictures show finds from the "excavations" and are at the same time tools for their preservation. Wüst has an unerring sense for the symbolism of everyday situations, objects and materials as well as for the enigmatic layers of meaning in found images, such as the enlarged details from GDR press photos, which reveal the manipulative use of photography.

Ulrich Wüst's photographic work can be perceived from different perspectives. The observations that he captures in his pictures may ultimately have their roots in the division of Germany and how it was overcome. However, they also always concern universal phenomena of social change and their material manifestations. The seemingly succinct, highly precisely composed images are the result of long visual wanderings in contemporary places of recent history.
Text by Matthias Flügge

An exhibition of the ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V.

Price information:

One-way ticket: 7€ / 5€ Combined ticket: 10€ / 6€ Free admission on Wednesdays