VISIONS NYC afterthoughts by Bärbel Möllmann
10 September - 16 October, 2011














© 2011 Bärbel Möllmann

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

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

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

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

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.

Wedding Present 2011
Art Laboratory Berlin and 7 other project spaces and a number of clubs will be open in this festival of culture and nightlife in Berlin's hippest district - http://koloniewedding.de/pdfs/flyer/wedding_presents2011.pdf?PHPSESSID=8f5ae92567ce61d9913d867104c14c98#zoom=150

At Art Laboratory Berlin: Artists in Dialog - Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi -
My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain open through 26 June 2011
More information here

Images from the exhibition My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some thoughts on Pain
By Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi. Running through 26 June, 2011
Open on Friday May 27 until 10PM as part of the late night of Wedding Art Spaces
















© 2011 by Rola Khayyat, courtesy Art Laboratory Berlin

Photos from the Round Table Al Tahrir: The Day After, May 1st, 2011 at Art Laboratory Berlin.


Participants of the discussion (from l to r): artist Al Fadhil, political scientist Heiko Wimmen, ALB co-director Christian de Lutz, anthropologist Munira Khayyat and artist Aissa Deebi.


Artist Al Fadhil (l) and political scientist Heiko Wimman (r)


Anthropologist Munira Khayyat

all photos © 2011 Art Laboratory Berlin

Photos from the opening reception for the Artists in Dialog: Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi
My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain.


Artists Aissa Deebi (l) and Al Fadhil (r) talking on skype several minutes before the exhibition opens with a work by Al Fadhil in the background.

ALB co-director Regine Rapp (front right) presenting the exhibition to the visitors.

ALB team member Kerstin Karge (r) and artist Aissa Deebi (m), whose work can be seen on the walls, talking to guests.

ALB team members Oleksandra Gomeniuk (r) and Rola Khayyat (l)

Artist Aissa Deebi (front left), anthropologist Munira Khayyat (m) and political scientist Heiko Wimmen (r)

ALB co-director Christian de Lutz (front left) and Regine Rapp (back center) talking with guests.

Visitors enjoying the show:




all photos © 2011 Art Laboratory Berlin

Installation of My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on pain, the upcoming exhibition by Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi




ALB team member Rola Khayyat and Al Fadhil

Aissa Deebi (l) Rola Khayyat (m) Al Fadhil (r)

Aissa Deebi











all photos © 2011 Aissa Deebi

Artists in Dialog: Al Fadhil & Aissa Deebi
My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain
29 April - 26 June, 2011, Fri - Sun, 2-6PM and by appointment
Opening: Thursday 28 April, 2011 8PM

Round table discussion Al Tahrir: The Day After, 1 May, 2011, 3PM

Art Laboratory Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition project Artists in Dialog: My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain on 28 April.

The exhibition, the third in our ongoing series Artists in Dialog, is a discoursive dialog between the Iraqi Swiss artist Al Fadhil and the Palestinian-American artist Aissa Deebi, and explores the complex ties between the personal and the political in the theme of loss.

My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life. Some Thoughts on Pain was first conceived 2005 by the artists during a common artist residency in Taiwan. Both artists had lost brothers in respective conflicts in their countries of origin. Al Fadhil has lost two brothers to the wars in Iraq. Aissa Deebi's younger brother Nasim died in Israeli police custody in 1999. The medical report labeled the death a suicide, something the artist and his family dispute.

Al Fadhil, Saddam Hussein with the Artist's Father, March, 26 1983, 2011

The exhibition focuses on both the artists' personal experience of loss and the cultural aspects of mourning and grief: Fadhil comes from a Shiite Iraqi family, whilst Deebi is Greek Orthodox. By means of photography, video and installation the exhibition will explore the three deaths and their political and historical context.


Aissa Deebi, Fish Hill, flip photography, digital print, 2011


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

In cooperation with:

With the generous support of:

Special Thanks from the artists and Art Laboratory Berlin to:

Makboula Nassar, photography assistant, Haifa
Osama Daoud, Project manger and producer, Cairo
Rasha Hillwi, Editor, Ramalah
Katie Siman, research assistant, Haifa
Samlan Natour, Writer, Haifa
Bruce Ferguson, Dean of Huss at the American University in Cairo