City Moments

What makes a city, and how do we perceive urbanity? What is the role of architecture in a globalised world, and what do architectural photographs convey? The exhibition ‘City Moments’, which continues at the Köppe Contemporary art gallery until January 15, features images from 21 cities on five continents. Striking compositions of buildings, towers, signs and extravagant interior spaces characterise Rathjen’s serene, black and white works. With the neutral gaze of a collector, he documents architectural structures and even scaffolding as though they were art installations in a public space.

‘City Moments’ searches for differences and analogies within its formal language, places apparent similarities in a visual dialogue, finds unusual alliances, and presents extraordinary perspectives. The resulting intersections give rise to new ways of seeing: the cityscapes are condensed into a fundamental feeling of urbanity, whereby the real cities themselves are no longer localised. The images exist independently from the actual buildings they portray, and – taking the concept one step further – pre-empt the need to visit them in person.

Further information at Köppe Contemporary Berlin
and Bernd Rathjen