Monday, September 26, 2011

Book Release Party - VISIONS NYC by Bärbel Möllmann:
30 September, 2011
from 8PM

In context of the ongoing show VISIONS NYC – afterthoughts,


Bärbel Möllmann: VISIONS NYC.
Portraits and Interviews from New York
. Berlin 2011
272 pages, 136 color photographs
30 x 25 cm (closed), 30 x 50 cm (open)
Hardcover, 4-color images
Essay: Regine Rapp (German and English)
48 interviews (each 4 – 15 min.), 4 CDs


In the project VISIONS NYC the Berlin-based artist and photographer Bärbel Möllmann has gathered a series of amazing portraits and interviews with New Yorkers from Summer 2001, recording their individual plans, goals and dreams, and from Summer 2002 recording their reactions to the events of the previous year.


More information at : http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-events-archive.htm

Sunday, September 11, 2011


VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts

Exhibition introduction and
Podium discussion "9/11… Ten Years Later"
Participants: Mark Donfried (director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy),
Howard McCalebb (artist and director of Dada Post),
Bärbel Möllmann (artist and photographer);
moderation: Christian de Lutz (Art Laboratory Berlin
).
http://artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-archive.htm


Bärbel Möllman gives a tour of the exhibition



(from left Christian de Lutz, Bärbel Möllman, Mark Donfried, Howard McCalebb)



all photos by Filipa Rolaça ©Art Laboratory Berlin 2011

Saturday, September 10, 2011


US Ambassador to Germany Philip D. Murphy visits Art Laboratory Berlin

Ambassador Murphy speaks with Bärbel Möllmann about her exhibition VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts
all photos by Filipa Rolaça ©Art Laboratory Berlin 2011

Friday, September 09, 2011

Vernissage of VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts
An audiovisual project by Bärbel Möllmann


On September 9, 2011








Bärbel Möllmann (center) all photos by Filipa Rolaça ©Art Laboratory Berlin 2011

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Bärbel Möllmann - VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts
10 September - 16 October, 2011
Opening: 9 September, 2011 8PM

Exhibition intro and podium discussion: Sunday, September 11, 2011
5PM: Exhibition Introduction
The artist Bärbel Möllmann and Regine Rapp (Art Laboratory Berlin) will give a tour of the exhibition

6PM: Podium discussion "9/11… Ten Years Later"
Participants: Mark Donfried (director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy), Howard McCalebb (artist and director of Dada Post), Bärbel Möllmann (artist and photographer); moderation: Christian de Lutz (Art Laboratory Berlin
).


Bärbel Möllmann, View over NYC, 2002

In connection with the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2011, Art Laboratory Berlin invites you to the opening of the exhibition project VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts on 9 September, 2011 at 8PM.

In VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts the Berliner artist and photographer Bärbel Möllmann brings together her portraits of and interviews with various New Yorkers from Summer 2001 as well as additional portraits and interviews taken a year later.

In July and August 2001 Möllmann realized her project VISIONS NYC in the boroughs of New York. The original project dealt with the myth of New York as the city of dreams. Möllmann spoke to various New Yorkers about why they came to the metropolis and about the dreams they hoped to realize there: former editor of fashion magazine »Glamour« Estelle Ellis explained why New York is the city where it is possible to realize ones dreams; Matthew Gordon from Baltimore spoke of his career in New York as a filmmaker; and performance artist Michelle Carlo reflected on her dream to realize her own TV show.

At this point, Möllmann could not, of course, foresee the attack on the Twin Towers. Therefore, the terrible events of 9/11 can not be perceived directly in this project, whose theme is more about the visions and destinies of individuals. In VISIONS NYC - afterthoughts the events of 9/11 are marked as a historic turning point in interviews and photos produced both before and after September 11. The destruction of the World Trade Center spurred on the artist to return a year later and continue her project, to interview some of her subjects a second time, and to make new portraits and interviews.

For her visual implementation Möllmann chose a special form of photography - the camera obscura (pinhole camera). An extremely long exposure time creates a soft focus that places the portrayed and their environment at a certain poetic distance. The voices of the interviewees, heard over headphones, bring the viewer closer to those portrayed. Only voice and image together, in the words of Bärbel Möllmann, can create such a personal portrait.

The resulting works show quite personally and authentically how much the city of New York and its residents changed between 2001 and 2002; the previously expressed visions and dreams appear in a new, far more complex light.

In the exhibition selected positions from the project can be seen and listened to. A photo book, specifically designed by the artist as artist book, will appear in the Fall of 2011 parallel to the exhibition and provide an overview of more than forty portraits and interviews.

Bärbel Möllmann (born on 4 July, 1970 in Bocholt, Germany) is an artist and photographer. She has lived in Berlin since 2002.