Exhibition: "Ah, Brandenburg … Fotografie im Dialog 1996 | 2026"

The exhibition“Ah, Brandenburg … Photographie im Dialog 1996 | 2026”explores these questions. It takes as its starting point the largest documentary photography project in eastern Germany, carried out by Diethart Kerbs and Sophie Schleußner between 1993 and 1996 in three federal states under the title ‘Photography and Memory’. Its initiators saw the photographs as a „message in a bottle to the future“: as images intended to show future generations what East German towns and landscapes looked like in the 1990s.

Thirty years later, this time capsule is being opened. It contains over 22,000 images, stored in three parts of the collection in Cottbus, Halle and Schwerin.

Students from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam examined the Brandenburg collection in the archives of the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art in Cottbus and, divided into 15 teams, set out to locate the original shooting locations. They traced the original lines of sight and created contemporary re-photographs based on the rediscovered perspectives. The impressions, encounters and conversations on site also gave rise to a series of independent photographic works.

The exhibition combines historical photographs with contemporary perspectives and invites visitors to reflect on memory, change and the role of photography. It asks not only what has changed over the past three decades, but also how photographs capture their respective present moments and what stories they preserve for the future.

The exhibition was created in collaboration with students from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. The initiative and project management were led by Prof Wiebke Loeper and Prof Dr Ulrich Richtmeyer. 

Participating photographers

From „Fotografie und Gedächtnis“, 1993–1996: Arno Fischer, Christoph Gödan, Rudolf Hartmetz, Michael Herrmann, Hans W. Mende, Reinhard Münch, Lothar M. Peter, Merit Schambach (née Pietzker), Jürgen Rehrmann, Günter Steffen, Holger Herschel and Ulrich Wüst, Gerhard Zwickert

Participating students from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, 2026: Ayiana Bartelmann, Alena Berning and Jonna Haumann, Linda Bergemann and Ludwig Schenk, Julian Flörchinger, Tara Juretko and Jannick Tismer, Florian Bolk and Lara Jablonski, Clara Gabriel and Malika Wagner, Laura Günther and Cora Wild, Stephanie Hagenstein and Natalie Stahl, Laura Monzert and Frida Schulz, Melis Poyraz, Kevin Schmidt and Nina Schwarz, Sofia Chybisova and Melina Runow, Rudolfs Pomerancevs and Laurenz Steffan, Paulina Deutmeyer and Max Kramer, Moritz Dörnenburg, Merle Kauf and Charlotte Schröter, Dana Schneider and Roman Traidl