If you want to swap the hustle and bustle of inner city Berlin for some quietly captivating photography, then let yourself drift down to Dahlem this weekend. There, at a new location in the south-western suburb, Bastian Gallery is showing 16 photographic works by British architect John Pawson. The gallery building is itself the work of Pawson, who also carved the Feuerle Collection’s underground space out of a wartime bunker. Pawson is a master of minimalism and staging, with a way of seeing that makes you perceive the medium of light anew. John Pawson – Looking for Light shows photographs taken between 2019 and 2021 at the artist’s family home in rural Oxfordshire. Pawson deliberately reduces the spatial character of the photographs, leaving light at the forefront and turning materials and surfaces into media themselves. Charged with the power of the light, you perceive the narratives directly. Art, architecture, place and picture all merge into a compositional exhibition that captures both the permanent and the passing. It’s an experience that makes you forget the confines of the inner city and move into the far distance.
Text: Ida Steffen / Photos: Max Gleeson / Credit: John Pawson – Looking for Light (2022) Courtesy: BASTIAN Berlin/London
Ida Steffen found her way to architecture via the performing and visual arts and is inspired by the common ground they share. She moved to Berlin nine years ago and lives in Prenzlauer Berg.
Bastian Gallery, Taylorstr.1, 14195 Berlin–Dahlem; map
John Pawson – Looking for Light, until 01.05.2022 11–18h by appointment (limited slots).
