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No-Man’s Land & Model Village
No-Man’s Land & Model Village
June 6, 2023
© Bettina Flitner
"What are you feeling right now?" This was the question photographer Bettina Flitner asked former East and West-German citizens shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. For a period of several months, Flitner took her camera and notepad to the so-called Death Strip – the no-man’s land between the two barriers that had divided the city from 1961 to 1989.
25 years later, the photographer visited Mestlin – once hailed as the ‘model village’ of socialism – in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This time, the guiding question was: “How do you view the GDR?”
The results are two exceptional photo series that paint a multi-layered picture of the tension-filled transition in East Germany since 1989.
Upheavals and contradictions are frequent topics in Bettina Flitner’s work, whereby people are always at the centre of her focus. The responses to her questions – “What has been?”, “What is to come?”, and “What remains?” – span from frustration to delight, from indifference to distress, from hopefulness to disillusionment and trepidation.
Both series, comprising around 50 photographs, are presented at Berlin’s Museum in der Kulturbrauerei from June 7, 2023, to January 14, 2024. The opening reception takes place on June 6, 2023 from 7 p.m.
Bettina Flitner (b. 1961 in Cologne) studied at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. Since the early 1990s, she has worked primarily as a photographer – becoming a member of the renowned ‘laif’ agency in 1992, and publishing 13 photo books to date.
Her series ‘No-Man’s Land’ was featured in M Magazine No. 2 (viewable free of charge in the LFI app).
25 years later, the photographer visited Mestlin – once hailed as the ‘model village’ of socialism – in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This time, the guiding question was: “How do you view the GDR?”
The results are two exceptional photo series that paint a multi-layered picture of the tension-filled transition in East Germany since 1989.
Upheavals and contradictions are frequent topics in Bettina Flitner’s work, whereby people are always at the centre of her focus. The responses to her questions – “What has been?”, “What is to come?”, and “What remains?” – span from frustration to delight, from indifference to distress, from hopefulness to disillusionment and trepidation.
Both series, comprising around 50 photographs, are presented at Berlin’s Museum in der Kulturbrauerei from June 7, 2023, to January 14, 2024. The opening reception takes place on June 6, 2023 from 7 p.m.
Bettina Flitner (b. 1961 in Cologne) studied at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. Since the early 1990s, she has worked primarily as a photographer – becoming a member of the renowned ‘laif’ agency in 1992, and publishing 13 photo books to date.
Her series ‘No-Man’s Land’ was featured in M Magazine No. 2 (viewable free of charge in the LFI app).
© Bettina Flitner
© Bettina Flitner
© Bettina Flitner
© Bettina Flitner
© Bettina Flitner