Bastian Gehbauer‘s artistic interests are rooted in places and their stories. The Berlin-based artist and photographer does not necessarily have to have seen these places himself. In “Memories of a place I have never been… Part II,” opening at Hoto Berlin (25.08.2023), he presents found material from photo archives, connected into a narrative. The series “Phantasma” (2022), for example, focuses on the German-Jewish architect Harry Rosenthal and the studio house he designed specifically for the writer Arnold Zweig. The modernist building, like many of his realized designs, was altered beyond recognition during the Nazi era (by Heinrich Kleiner in 1938). Bastian Gebauer’s series gives the site in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf a ghostly character, affected by erasure and oblivion.

In addition, fragmented architectural drawings by the Jewish architect Martin Punitzer are shown. Like Rosenthal, he also managed to flee Germany in the 1930s. His plans for the Roxy Palast cinema were exiled with him, and after his death in Chile in 1949, most of them were destroyed in a fire. The individual works are connected by an expansive installation consisting of building elements of the so-called Boulevard Café, which was opened on Karl-Marx-Allee on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the GDR. Another is the so-called Pinguin Café from the Dresden Zoo, a steel scaffolding structure that opened in 1972 and was stowed away in the city’s Lapidarium a few years ago. From there, some pieces have now made the journey (on a short visit) back to Berlin, so as not to be forgotten. The architects and architectures selected by Bastian Gehbauer stand as paradigms for biographies and works of art that fell victim to social oblivion. The exhibition impressively shows what changing political circumstances do to places and brings the legibility of the stories anchored in the buildings back into the present. If you want to evoke the memory of these and other interesting places, you can do so until 03.10.2023 in the Kreuzberg gallery, which, incidentally, is located in a former cinema.

Laura Catania is a graphic designer with a research-based focus on visual art and music. Her work in the contemporary art scene also finds expression in the curation of concert formats, such as the “Bar Palermo” series. She is co-founder of the music label “Heaven”.

Text: Laura Catania / Photos: Lukas Städler / Credit: HOTO & Bastian Gehbauer

Hoto Berlin, Bergmannstr.109, 10961 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
Bastian Gehbauer – Memories of a place I have never been… Part II 26.08.–03.10.2023. Opening Fri 25.08. 18–21h

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