Drägende Gegenwart – Exhibition as Part of the European Month of Photography

Drängende Gegenwart reflects the massive societal and social upheavals and challenges that are characterised by the confluence of multiple crises. The students approach different thematic complexes visually, each with their own means and approaches.

For the first time, younger photographers will be given a voice and a place through the educational institutions as part of the festival – especially the generation that is particularly affected by the social upheavals and existential crises of the present. At the same time, it draws attention to the extensive opportunities in the field of photography education in Berlin and Potsdam and recognises the excellent work of Berlin's private and public educational institutions.

The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is represented with the work of Amely Sommer, Julia Bohle, Meera Lehr, Klara Stangl and Marcia Friese, graduates of the department of Design.

In 2021, Amely Sommer returned to Vogtland in Saxony, the region where she grew up, for a few months. "Und da, wo mein Zuhause ist" tells the story of family, early politicisation and socialisation in the East German province on different photographic levels – between an us and them. In addition to documents of everyday political life, manipulated structures dedicated to personal reception, diary entries, portraits and excerpts from conversations Amely had with young people on site, a collage becomes a space. What does it mean to grow up in a place that burns and stands still at the same time?

Julia Bohle' s photographic project "Ich fühle was, was du nicht siehst" explores the personality trait of high sensitivity. It reflects the positive and negative sides that this characteristic brings with it and draws attention to the intense perception of stimuli and emotions. The photographs are accompanied by text excerpts from interviews with people who describe themselves as particularly emotional and sensitive. The project provides an insight into the lives of highly sensitive people and conveys perceptions, feelings and emotions in an artistic way.

The work "Ein falsches Märchen" by Meera Lehr deals with our disturbed relationship with ourselves. It moves between silence and noise, tenderness and brutality, illusion and reality. We construct supposed realities. Alienation from the outside and alienation from the inside interact. How close or distant are we from ourselves?

"bleeding love" breaks with social taboos and expectations as well as established binaries and thus points to the individuality of the owners of a uterus and can be perceived as empowerment for them or for all those who feel strengthened by it. Klara Stangl 's main focus was on raising awareness about discrimination in menstruation. The photographic work invites us to open up the discourse.

The art book "Wange an Wange" by Marcia Friese deals with farewell and mourning, an attempt to approach the new state. The state without a mother. The photographs show the dust in the photographer's mother's flat in the months following her death. The dust photographs are supplemented with diary entries. The work shows a photographic approach to grief without answers, raw and close, because there are no answers, the book is intended to open up conversations instead.

Special thanks for the realisation of this project go to the photographer Frank Schumacher, head of the photography department at the Lette Verein Berlin and chairman of the education section of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie e.V. (DGPh), who brought the various actors together in cooperation with EMOP Berlin. The contributions from the individual schools were created under the direction of Wiebke Loeper (FH Potsdam), Walter Bergmoser (University of Europe for Applied Sciences), Anja Manfredi (Schule Friedl Kubelka), Henrik Spohler (HTW Berlin), Marc Volk (International Photography School), Werner Mahler and Thomas Sandberg (Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie).

Further information
Website EMOP: https://emop-berlin.eu/specials/draengende-gegenwart/
Instagram FH Potsdam Design: https://www.instagram.com/fhpotsdam.design/

Vernissage
04/03/2023, 7.00 pm

Exhibition
04/ to 26/03/2023
Leipziger Str. 54
10117 Berlin

Monday to Friday 2.00 pm –7.00 pm
Admission free