Post Perspective

In her diploma exhibition POSTMODERN PROJECTIONS at the HfG Karlsruhe in May 2010,

Julia Brandes presented strategies to exhibit Heinrich Klotz’ photographic archive on

architecture, developing various displays and modes of presentation that elicited different

forms of examination. Focusing on images of postmodern architecture, the exhibition gives

access not only to this recently published archive of small picture slides, but also provokes

questions about how to best exhibit these images, which are currently undergoing the

process of digitalization. How does the transfer from object to digital information change the

handling of groups of images? What problems and possibilities do medial transfers pose for

the presentation of images and works held within the archive?

Taking the conditions of image production and distribution as a starting point, Brandes

created displays that reference the tools of making, collecting and working with images. While

she uses light box, slide storage, projector and computer screen to present the different forms

the archived images take, other displays merely recall such instruments. For instance,

Brandes presents two replicas of a slide projector rack, which are used as displays for laptop

computer terminals, following a post-modern strategy of adopting and converting formal

elements within a new context. Besides this spatial approach, an online infrastructure was

developed to give a wider audience access to the material.

Exhibit in the exhibition Postmoderne Reflektion. Das Heinrich Klotz - Bildarchiv der HfG Karlsruhe presented at HfG Karlsruhe

Heinrich Klotz Archiv / 237

Heinrich Klotz Archiv / 239

Post Perspective

This image essay begins with the idea of the exhibition as an update, in relation to its context

and framework, in which a new manifestation is produced. Brandes rethinks the installation

presentation for the format of print publication. Evoking the surface of a lightbox, scanned

slides are grouped together to refer to this tool of analogue photography. The layout of the

images brings to mind a situation of encountering and photographing a building, suggesting

the trace movement of the camera as choreography. Producing a representation of the moment

of image production, the image essay questions the single image or object as an agent of

memory, demanding an active examination of the image and reflection on its (re-)production.

How can reception be turned into a mode of production? To what extent can the perception

of an architectural reality be re-experienced through a media?

Exhibit in the exhibition Postmoderne Reflektion. Das Heinrich Klotz - Bildarchiv der HfG Karlsruhe presented at HfG Karlsruhe

01 Frank Lloyd Wright: Kraus House, Ebsworth Park, Kirkwood, Missouri, USA (built 1951- 1960)

02 O.M. Ungers: Apartment building Mauenheimer Straße, Cologne, Germany (built 1957 - 1959)

03 Eero Saarinen: David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink “The Yale Whale“ at Yale University, New Haven, Conneticut, USA (built 1953 - 1958)

04 Charles W. Moore: Sea Ranch Family House, Sonoma County, California, USA (built 1964 - 1966)

05 Moshe Safdie: Apartment building Habitat 67 at Universal and International Exhibition Montreal, Québec, Canada (built 1966 -1967)

06 Frank O. Gehry: Family House and Artist‘s Studio “Danziger Studio Residence Art Gallery“, Los Angeles, California, USA (built 1964 - 1965)

07 Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown: BASCO Supermarket, Bristol, Philadephia, USA (built 1976, demolished 1997)

08 Mario Botta: Family house, Ligornetto, Tizin, Switzerland (built 1975 - 1976)

09 Georg Heinrichs: Apartment building “Autobahnüberbauung Schlangenbader Straße”, Berlin, Germany (built 1967/81)

All photographs were taken by Heinrich Klotz. The precise moment of capture is unkown.

The Heinrich Klotz Archive comprises about 10.000 small picture color-slides on historical as well also Modern and Postmodern architecture in Europe, USA and Japan. It also includes portraits of famous architects like Gottfried Böhm, Mario Botta, Hans Hollein, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Meier, Charles W. Moore, Aldo Rossi, O.M. Ungers, Robert Venturi und Denise Scott Brown, etc., as well as portraits and studio images of German painters classified as Junge Wilde. All photographs were taken between 1969 and 1985.

A first part of the archive showing more than 3000 slides is already accessible on the Internet. http://postmoderneprojektion.hfg-karlsruhe.de/Archiv/index.html

Based on her research and work with the archive Julia Brandes developed a curatorial concept and exhibition design that was realized as part of her diploma presentation. Her exhibition POSTMODERNE PROJEKTION. DAS HEINRICH - KLOTZ BILD-ARCHIV DER HfG KARLSRUHE was shown at HfG Karlsruhe in May 2010.

copyright/address:Heinrich Klotz - Bildarchiv der HfG KarlsruheInstitut für Kunstwissenschaft und MedientheorieLorenzstr. 1576135 Karlsruhejbrandes@hfg-karlsruhe.de