MEIN STALINBAU
Photographs by Thorsten Klapsch
11 November – 16 December 2018
The exhibition
MEIN STALINBAU
Home visits by Thorsten Klapsch and Michaela Nowotnick
11 November – 16 December 2018
The Stalinallee in Berlin. Built at the beginning of the 1950s in the east of the city, the magnificent boulevard intended to impress the Germans in the West and the entire world: a prime example of trailblazing socialist architecture and a powerful symbol of the spirit of progress in the fledgling GDR. Attractive shops, cultural buildings and leisure facilities, but particularly the modern residential buildings, were meant to visibly express the essence of the new socialist state.
Whoever secured an apartment in one of the so-called workers’ palaces – featuring elevator, rubbish chute and central heating, the living comforts of modern times – often remained a loyal tenant for decades. There are still original residents living in “the Allee” today; some of whom were even involved in its construction.
Now the buildings, which have since changed their address to Karl-Marx-Allee or Frankfurter Allee, are yet again emerging as a coveted inner-city living space. A contested playing field on which the defenders of the conventional clash with property investors and profiteers.
Thorsten Klapsch and Michaela Nowotnick, who both live in “the Allee“, visited long-time residents and newcomers in their Stalin building – with camera and notebook. The exhibition thus documents an architectural monument and its residents between lived past and renewal.
Exhibition opening
Saturday, 10 November 2018 at 5 pm
bildkultur | galerie, Markelstr. 19, 70193 Stuttgart
Introduction
Dr. Matthias Bullinger | bildkultur Stuttgart
Dr. Michaela Nowotnick, Berlin / Bargfeld
The exhibition is on view
from Sunday 11 November – Sunday 16 December 2018
Gallery
hours
On appointment: Phone 0711 / 6 57 33 03