Lilienstraße

2024–

DE-ADR_2024_FS
(WIR SIND JETZT AN EINEM SCHEIDEWEG. KRIEG ODER FRIEDEN.)
* Translated from German: "We are at a crossroads. War or peace."
2024

The Lilienstraße (a generic name for a street in Germany) project aims to create an unbiased collection of societal positions and opinions in Germany and beyond, starting in 2024. Primarily, people in the state of Brandenburg who are neither politicians nor public opinion leaders are asked for their views. In collaboration with the artist, a brief and concise formulation that reflects the position of the depicted person is being developed in a dialogical format. This provides an opportunity for those who feel underrepresented in the current political agenda to express themselves and their milieu.

On a visual and textual level, the project explores how the political versus private image of a citizen is formed, and what visually constitutes the image of a homo politicus. It examines how individual or group staging, the inclusion of a quote as text in/on the image, or the deliberate choice of background influences perception. The opinion images will likely be categorized into the following categories: the Angry, the Worried, the Optimistic, the Secure, the Undecided, and the Enraged.

Lilienstraße continues the August Sander's (1876–1964) tradition of typological documentation while interrogating whether 'objective' social photography remains possible in post-unified Germany. By redirecting curatorial attention to Eastern German voices systematically underrepresented in institutional photography canon, the project challenges the historical dominance of Western German visual representation in contemporary discourse.

The idea for the project is also inspired by the historical exhibition The Family of Man by art historian Edward Steichen in 1955 in New York. From a theoretical perspective, the project draws on Horst Bredekamp's Theory of Bildakt (2007) and Wolfgang Kemp's Reception Aesthetics approach (1991).

The project began shortly before the 2024 European elections and is intended to continue over a longer period. Participation in the project is free of charge for all participants.

Images from the photographic series can also be viewed as on Instagram as highlights or as posts.

❏ Download a PDF with a German translation

DE-RNR_2024_LNAX
(AUS DEM SCHOCK RAUS. FRUST ZUM KAMPF NUTZEN.)
* Translated from German: "Shake off the shock. Use frustration for the fight."
2024

DE-WDZ_2024_E
(MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO. GEMEINSINN STÄRKEN.)
* Translated from German: "A healthy mind in a healthy body. Strengthen the sense of community."
2024

DE-WDZ_2024_AMM
(EINE WELT, EINE FAMILIE. DIVERS, UND DOCH VEREINT.)
* Translated from German: "One world, one family. Diverse, yet united."
2024

DE-ADR_2024_LS
(ES GIBT KEIN LEBEWESEN, DAS SO WISSENTLICH SELBSTZERSTÖRERISCH IST WIE DER MENSCH.)
* Translated from German: "There is no living being that is as knowingly self-destructive as humans."
2024

DE-RNR_2024_NC
(LEBT WIE IHR SEID UND LIEBT WEN IHR WOLLT.)
* Translated from German: "Live as you are and love whom you want."
2024

DE-WEU_2024_M
(MINDERWERTIGKEITSGEFÜHL HERRSCHT. ANGST ZERSTÖRT TRÄUME.)
* Translated from German: "Inferiority complex rules. Fear destroys dreams."
2024

DE-RNR_2024_AAR
(SYMPATHIEN FÜR RECHTSEXTREME MACHEN UNS SORGEN.)
* Translated from German: "Sympathies for right-wing extremists worry us."
2024

DE-WEU_2024_SM
(NICHT VON DER POLITIK AUSGENUTZT WERDEN.)
* Translated from German: "Don't be exploited by politics."
2024

DE-WEU_2024_BL
("DER FRIEDEN IST NICHT ALLES, ABER ALLES IST OHNE DEN FRIEDEN NICHTS." – WB)
* Translated from German: "Peace is not everything, but without peace, everything is nothing." (Willy Brandt)
2024

DE-EBW_2025_DD
(JEDER HAT DAS RECHT AUF SEINE KULTUR. AUCH IN DEUTSCHLAND MUSS DAS GELTEN.)
* Translated from German: "Everyone has the right to their culture. This must also apply in Germany."
2025