Home to modern art, architecture and photography, Berlinische Galerie‘s interdisciplinary collection is home to the thought-provoking contemporary art of Berlin. The museum’s divergent displays deal with art from 1870 to the present, igniting a commentary on the progression of Berlin’s contemporary art scene while aiming to invite visitors into a space where they can engage in creativity, conversation and discovery.
This Friday 24 June, Berlinische Galerie welcomes the public to see their latest exhibition ‘Sibylle Bergemann, Town and Country and Dogs, Photographs 1966 – 2010,’ the first retrospective of the Berlin-based photographer since her death in 2010. Spanning over four decades, the exhibition explores a more nuanced side of Sibylle Bergemann, a photographer widely known for fashion and portrait work. While the exhibition offers an insight into this side of her practice, it aims to provide a broader portrayal of Bergemann’s works, entering a personal realm of photography in which she explores the female identity, the urban landscape and dogs – a recurring motif for the photographer.
Comprising a comprehensive selection of over 200 photographs, some of which were unpublished until now, the exhibition is organised into six “chapters” – “An Invisible Observer,” “Berlin,” “Women,” “Moscow, Paris, New York,” “The World in Colour” and “Back in Berlin.” Through this chronological and thematic approach, the exhibition serves as a guide to Bergemann’s œuvre, revealing a more complex and multifaceted view of the artist. Across each “chapter,” Bergemann’s desire to “to know what people are doing, how they respond to each other, the things they surround themselves with” is prevalent, with the viewer encountering a number of intimate and profound portraits of friends, acquaintances and strangers – most of whom are women. The female identity is a recurring point of observation for the photographer, who from the mid-1970s portrayed women in a variety of settings: modelling, dancing and on the street. Through her portraits, in particular, the boundaries of photographic genres are transcended, bringing documentary, portraiture and fashion together in the same image. The same can be said for Bergemann’s female subjects, in the way that they are not bound by a singular representation but rather shown in their complexity and authenticity.
Meanwhile, other images in the exhibition reveal Bergemann’s fascination with form and composition in the urban landscape. This manifests itself in her images of Berlin, a city that she found herself in among its great changes; the building of the Wall, the subsequent division of Germany, and finally its unification. Bergemann’s monochromatic images document the city’s radically changing political context while serving as evidence of her daring exploration of her distinctive style in a time when artistic autonomy had been greatly compromised under Communist control. Despite this, Bergemann continued to freelance for a number of art and culture magazines, eventually going on to co-found the photographer agency “Ostkreuz” in 1990.
Curated by Thomas Köhler and Katia Reich, ‘Sibylle Bergemann Town and Country and Dogs. Photographs 1966–2010’ is a comprehensive retrospective of a woman who greatly shaped the history of German photography. Beautiful and intriguing, Sibylle Bergemann’s images are filled with depth and truth, where fiction and reality come together in a captivating, provoking visual narrative.
Sibylle Bergemann Town and Country and Dogs. Photographs 1966–2010 is available to view from 24 June 2022 – 10 October 2022 at Berlinische Galerie.
Listen to SLEEK Talks with Dr. Thomas Köhler.