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.