In Berlin Alexanderplatz Kaufhof Reverse, I reconstruct the view surrounding the Kaufhof department store (formerly the Centrum Warenhaus). Four facade panels, each 160 x 560 cm, have been assembled from 4,084 individual images, photographed from the inside looking out through the holes in the building’s “honeycomb” facade. The view of the building takes on a double meaning. Assembling the individual perspectives creates a view of the building, with its unmistakable honeycomb structure, as a negative form of the view from within. The viewer is presented with a perspective that seems to suggest that the architecture itself is looking out at its surroundings like a living thing.

In the film of the same name, Berlin Alexanderplatz Kaufhof Reverse, the views from this multifaceted architectural eye become a film sequence, set in motion at a rate of 24 frames per second. The result is a fictive tracking shot through the interstices of the facade, simulating a mechanical scan of the four views.

Photographic and film montage consisting of 4,084 small-format photographs, each taken through one of the holes in the “honeycomb” facade of the former Centrum Warenhaus, from the inside looking out. Reassembled into four facade panels, each 160 x 560 cm, and a 16-mm film, 2:43 min. + 7 frames, loop.

Photographic and film montage consisting of 4,084 small-format photographs, each taken through one of the holes in the “honeycomb” facade of the former Centrum Warenhaus, from the inside looking out. Reassembled into four facade panels, each 160 x 560 cm, and a 16-mm film, 2:43 min. + 7 frames, loop.

In 2003 Heike Klussmann dismantled and stored the facade of the Haus des Lehrers on the Alexanderplatz (built 1962–64. It will be reused, in the tradition of architectural spoils, in a new structure, together with the facades of the Forum Hotel, the Kaufhof and the Palast der Republik.

Window from the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 156 x 176 cm,
Photography of the Window reflecting the demolition, 156 x 176 cm

Photographs from inside the pipe: direct exposures on black-and-white baryta paper, each 30 cm in diameter

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.

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.

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

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.

Monochrome City at Norwich Gallery, UK.

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

Monochrome City shown at Haus des Lehrers and Kongresshalle Berlin.