Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

Today I would like to take you with me to Berlin Friedrichshain and to introduce you the artist run space »aff Gallery«. Since February 2014 I’m a member of the organising team. The aff gallery sees itself as a platform for discussion and exhibition space for young and emerging contemporary photography. Since 2014, after several structural changes, it is run by a collective of nine members with diverse photographic backgrounds, as well as advisory curators. The aim is to exhibit emerging German and international artists to network and to support their projects. The photographs shown are observing, reporting and questioning. Emphases are people and their socio-cultural environment, portrait, reportage and documentary photography as well as conceptual work. In addition to the gallery exhibitions the aff organises cooperations with other artspaces, institutions or initiatives. This autumn, the aff Gallery took part in several art and photography events in Berlin. One was, the so called »European Month of Photography«, a very big photofestival with many exhibitions and events all over Berlin. And the other one was the »Berliner Liste – Fair for Contemporary Art«, in which the aff gallery participated with a booth and a two artist show. It was a nice experience to take part in this artfair, especially because it was the first time for the aff to present itself in such a (in this case commercial) context. By the way, I would like to announce the exhibition »Rückblicke (Retrospectives)«, with works by Claire Laude, Katrin Streicher, Lana Abramova, Stephanie Englert & Tom Licht (curated by Lena von Geyso), which is just shown at aff Gallery. The exhibition was opened last week on 28th of November and is still running till the mid of January 2015. If you happen to be in Berlin this winter, come around! Here are the dates: Exhibition: 29.11.-7.12.2014 & 10.01.-18.01.2015 Opening hours: Sat & Sun 3-6 pm aff Gallery Kochhannstr. 14, 10249 Berlin www.aff-galerie.de The exhibition »Retrospectives« presents a collection of stories of past experiences – of stories we tell and stories that have been told. The photographs of Claire Laude, Katrin Streicher, Lana Abramova, Stephanie Englert and Tom Licht illustrate not only impressive and atmospheric journeys back in time – they also touch on the fact that our current place in time and space is always inscribed (and inescapable) when we look back in time. Reflecting on where we come from, what has influenced us in the past and who we want to be in the future, Gertrude Stein asks, »What good are roots if you can’t take them with you?« In the separation between our origins and our present state we experience what we have become. Identity is not a state that is predetermined by the past but rather a creation of opportunities that result from past experiences as well as from current and future thoughts and imaginations. Our present and future is shaped by the fragments of the past that we pick up and carry with us - that have made us who we are today and mold who we would like to be. Finding our own histories is always about searching and inventing our future stories. (Excerpt from the online exhibition description by aff Gallery.) Thus with the aff Gallery a platform has developed that allows the members and artists to act freely and work at visual, but also societal, political, and social implementations of artistic questions. (Fotocredits: aff Gallery archiv, Alexa Vachon, Anna Eckold, Kaja Smith, Stephanie Englert)