Haus am Kleistpark

In the photographic work of Ulrike Kolb space and object become image. In the current exhibition the artist is showing photographs of the interiors of historical spaces of knowledge: universities, museums, memorial sites, and the objects found therein. We see delicate, poetic, and yet strict compositions that are sometimes jarring. But whether we are dealing with three-dimensional models, paintings, or photographs is often difficult to say. Through the choice of detail shown, the objects and places are removed from their original context. Motifs lose their unambiguous nature and become open to new relations and associations.

The places photographed as well as the museum-like staging appear to have fallen out of time right in the middle of their everyday urban lives. And this atmosphere is precisely what Ulrike Kolb aims to record. Another impulse of her work is to photograph places of knowledge before they disappear forever, like the ethnological museum in Dahlem.

Ulrike Kolb studied photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig and completed her diploma under the guidance of Prof. Joachim Brohm. Already for her first series of museum photographs she was awarded the Aenne Biermann Prize for Contemporary German Photography in 1999. From 2011 to 2017 Ulrike Kolb was a member of the artist-run Loris Gallery in Berlin. Most recently, at the Museum Berggruen the artist exhibited photographs showing places where the art of Chagal is present in our contemporary everyday life.

photos © Gerhard Haug