Eight-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrom City, shot from the 12th story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 320 cm.

Nine-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12th story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 340 cm.

Monochrome City consists of fourteen large-format direct exposures that I made from the top floor of the Haus des Lehrers (Teacher’s House) on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. The photographs were made over the course of 2001, when my studio was located there. They depict either the view down onto Alexanderplatz or the view in the opposite direction, looking back into the building. ‹Monochrome City› employs the principle of the camera obscura—that is, all of the images are exposed directly onto the paper, and thus they appear as negatives and mirror reversed. The exposure time of each photograph ranges from a few hours to several days. To take the photographs I first built a box based on the proportions of the building and the dimensions of the window openings, then I converted the whole studio space into a camera. The work consists of several perspectives: four horizontal views outward (north, south, west, east), four vertical views down the facade of the building toward the street (north, south, west, east), and four views into the house (wall, ceiling). The view into my studio is also the view into the camera, since for two architectural details the whole studio functioned as a pinhole camera. They show Kaufhof and the Forum Hotel, two buildings that stand on Alexanderplatz, boxlike and solitary, much as the Haus des Lehrers does. The sightlines touch the building, but they leave it like a vacant space in the center of the work.

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

8-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrom City, shot from the 12th story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 320 cm.

Camera Obscura for Monochrome City

The camera obscura for the Descent photographs (North, South, East and West) in Monochrome City was mounted on the top floor of the Haus des Lehrers. The studio space itself formed the camera obscura for the other photographs in the series.

Here, in the southwest corner of the top floor of the Haus des Lehrers, the Monochrome City series was created in 2000–01: fourteen large-format direct exposures of Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.

Therefore Heike Klussmann converted her studio in the Haus des Lehrers into a photographic apparatus, the whole studio became a camera obscura, format 550 x 500 x 320 cm.

Monochrom City in the show
Berlin Getting Real at the Kunst Zürich.

Match Striker, Silkscreen, dimensions variable

Bottomless box made from the floorboards of a one-bedroom apartment in Berlin.

For the exhibition “Z2000,” Stadt im Regal designed and built a full-scale model of a bungalow by architect Eduard Ludwig (Type A No. 39) in the forecourt of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. The model functions as both a sculpture and a temporary exhibition pavilion. The original bungalow was built for an international architecture exhibition in 1957 and still stands in the nearby Hansaviertel neighborhood.

www.stadtimregal.de/bungalow

Henry Moore’s 1956 sculpture Reclining Figure, which was installed in front of the Academy of the Arts in the Hansaviertel neighborhood in 1961, is integrated into the courtyard of Bungalow Type A No. 39. “Z2000” exhibition, Akademie der Künste, Berlin.

Bungalow multiple box, including twelve items from Stadt im Regal, edition of sixteen, 2000

North facade of Bungalow with Match Striker

www.loop-raum.de/sehensehen<br>www.loop-raum.de/randori

Heike Klussmann is Visiting Professor at Art Center College of Design Pasadena, CA, USA, Dept. of Fine Art, 1999 – 2000, Dept. of Environmental Design, 2003

www.artcenter.edu

Stadt im Regal: Bungalow, fold-out in catalog for “Z2000,” published by the Akademie der Künste and Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 2000

The design of the Type A No. 39 bungalow in the Hansaviertel neighborhood is unusual both for the rigid separation of the one-story building from its environment and for the thorough rationalization and minimal tolerances of its functional processes. A simple arrangement of living area, garage and garden within two overlapping rectangles results in a horizontal box meant to provide its inhabitants with an exceptional amount of exterior isolation and interior freedom. In the full-scale model, the bungalow is transformed through the use of low-tech materials, addressing contemporary ideas of shelter, seclusion, permeability and connection to the outside world. As a freestanding implant in public space, 1957’s model house becomes a working model once more.