Duet of Modernism

In 2022 and 2024, the photo artist Bettina Cohnen photographed people in their apartments on Karl-Marx-Allee and in the Hansaviertel. These are juxtaposed with photographs of the Berlin administration from 1947 to 1954, which depict the condition of the later residential areas in the early 1950s.

Good, affordable housing for everyone was a central concern of modernist architecture. This applied to the planning of Stalinallee in East Berlin around 1950, the first "Socialist Street" and later Karl-Marx-Allee, as well as to the new Hansaviertel in West Berlin, which was presented at the Interbau in 1957.

Bettina Cohnen photographed the famous residential areas of post-war modernism in Berlin. In eight series of over 80 images, she depicts the apartments in all their diversity, complexity, and intimacy: a photographic commentary on everyday life in a much-discussed environment today. At the same time, the photographer explores the ideas of the respective architects.

The streets on whose site the modern building projects were constructed from the mid-1950s onwards were largely destroyed in the Second World War. The clearing of the rubble was accompanied by extensive documentation by the Berlin City Council, Senate, and district offices, accompanied by photographers. These images are now preserved in various Berlin collections, including the Berlin State Archives and the Mitte Museum.

The exhibition was created in collaboration with the building culture platform THE LINK. It is part of EMOP Berlin, Germany's largest biennial photography festival. The festival, with the motto "What Stands Between Us," will take place in its eleventh year from March 1 to 31, 2025.

Opening: March 6, 2025, 6 p.m.
Jan Dimog, Hendrik Bohle, Bettina Cohnen, Nathan Friedenberg