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Ronkholz & Efeoglou in Cologne
Ronkholz & Efeoglou in Cologne
July 8, 2025
Tata Ronkholz, Roadside shop in Cologne’s Nippes district, Merheimerstrasse 294, 1983
© VAN HAM Art Estate/Tata Ronkholz, 2025
Designed World marks the first major retrospective dedicated to the oeuvre of photographer, product designer and interior architect Tata Ronkholz – one of the earliest students taught by Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The showcase brings together works from a range of sources, including the holdings of the Photography Collection/SK Cultural Foundation, the VAN HAM Art Estate (which acquired the late artist’s archive in 2011), the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, and other contributors.
Ronkholz’s work follows in the tradition of objective photography, a genre significantly shaped by Bernd and Hilla Becher. Just like the famous artist couple, Ronkholz pursued a serial approach characterised by a clear-cut documentation of manmade structures and the architecture of everyday life. The artist became best known for her series on kiosks and roadside shops, created between 1977 and 1985 in Germany’s Rhineland and Ruhr regions. These small, often freestanding structures were a typical hallmark of Germany’s urban culture. She also trained her lens on subjects such as industrial gates, as well as Düsseldorf’s Rhein Harbour prior to its modernisation. The exhibition also features architectural photographs from Italy – along with surprising insights into Ronkholz’s early work as a product designer.
August Sander meets AI
At the heart of the project, created by Greek artist Elena Efeoglou’s (b. 1978), are selected portraits by August Sander (1876–1964) from his portfolio People of the 20th Century. During a multi-week residency at the Photography Collection / SK Cultural Foundation in the summer of 2024, Efeoglou reviewed numerous images by the renowned photographer, whose objective yet profoundly insightful portraits form an impressive chronicle of German society between 1900 and 1950.
Efeoglou went on to select ten photographs and accompanied them with fictional texts – imagining possible biographical contexts, emotional tensions and social backgrounds for the depicted protagonists. With the aid of artificial intelligence, she then created additional images in connection to Sander’s works. While the AI-generated images echo the atmosphere and visual style of the historical photographs, they depart from their documentary intent; instead, they open up new narrative dimensions and question the boundaries between reality, memory, and projection.
The AI-generated portraits emerge as visual spaces of resonance – inspired by the historical images, but detached from an actual past. In this way, the exhibition invites a reflection on the possibilities of contemporary image-making and its relationship to our photographic heritage. Efeoglou’s works introduce a new perspective on historical portraits, building a bridge between a documentary past and a speculative present.
Katrin UllmannRonkholz’s work follows in the tradition of objective photography, a genre significantly shaped by Bernd and Hilla Becher. Just like the famous artist couple, Ronkholz pursued a serial approach characterised by a clear-cut documentation of manmade structures and the architecture of everyday life. The artist became best known for her series on kiosks and roadside shops, created between 1977 and 1985 in Germany’s Rhineland and Ruhr regions. These small, often freestanding structures were a typical hallmark of Germany’s urban culture. She also trained her lens on subjects such as industrial gates, as well as Düsseldorf’s Rhein Harbour prior to its modernisation. The exhibition also features architectural photographs from Italy – along with surprising insights into Ronkholz’s early work as a product designer.
August Sander meets AI
At the heart of the project, created by Greek artist Elena Efeoglou’s (b. 1978), are selected portraits by August Sander (1876–1964) from his portfolio People of the 20th Century. During a multi-week residency at the Photography Collection / SK Cultural Foundation in the summer of 2024, Efeoglou reviewed numerous images by the renowned photographer, whose objective yet profoundly insightful portraits form an impressive chronicle of German society between 1900 and 1950.
Efeoglou went on to select ten photographs and accompanied them with fictional texts – imagining possible biographical contexts, emotional tensions and social backgrounds for the depicted protagonists. With the aid of artificial intelligence, she then created additional images in connection to Sander’s works. While the AI-generated images echo the atmosphere and visual style of the historical photographs, they depart from their documentary intent; instead, they open up new narrative dimensions and question the boundaries between reality, memory, and projection.
The AI-generated portraits emerge as visual spaces of resonance – inspired by the historical images, but detached from an actual past. In this way, the exhibition invites a reflection on the possibilities of contemporary image-making and its relationship to our photographic heritage. Efeoglou’s works introduce a new perspective on historical portraits, building a bridge between a documentary past and a speculative present.
Tata Ronkholz, Roadside shop in Cologne’s Nippes district, Merheimerstrasse 294, 1983
© VAN HAM Art Estate/Tata Ronkholz, 2025
Tata Ronkholz, Palazzo dei Vescovi (Museo dell’Antico), Pistoia, 1975
© VAN HAM Art Estate/Tata Ronkholz, 2025
August Sander, Beggar, 1930
© Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archive, Cologne; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2025
Elena Efeoglou, Marta, 2024, AI-generated image inspired by August Sander’s photograph, Beggar 1930
© Elena Efeoglou