HGEsch exhibition: House and Horizon - Transformations at the Aedes Architecture Forum, Berlin

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has brought to the attention of a wider public all the various issues related to large urban transformations, emphasising the importance of the valuable documentation and research work carried out in “more innocent” times by a number of intellectuals. Transformation is, indeed, a recurring topic in the research activities carried out by architecture photographer HGEsch, to whom the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin has dedicated the exhibition titled “HGEsch: House and Horizon – Transformations”. The exhibition will open its doors to the public on Friday, March 19 and will remain open until May 13, 2021.
HGEsch is a renowned photographer and film director, creator of various documentaries focused on architecture, such as those filmed to narrate the expansion of the Kunsthalle Mannheim museum and of the Olympic Sports Centre in Suzhou, China, both designed by the GMP Studio. He also filmed using aerial and indoor shots, such as those for the Caohejing Xinzhou Mansion office building in Shanghai, also designed by the GMP Group, or for the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. As an architecture photographer, HGEsch has presented exhibitions focused on large buildings designed by international architecture firms. Among the latest, the "Stadt, Land, Fluss" exhibition presented during the Berlin Art Week 2019 at the FAB Architectural Bureau in Berlin, which included projects by GMP, HENN, Christoph Ingenhoven, Kohn Pedersen Fox and other architects.

The main subjects of HGEsch’s latest exhibition, which will be inaugurated at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin, are the former headquarters of the Osram company in Munich and large-format panoramic images of a number of important global metropolises including Doha, Dubai, New York, Beijing and, of course, Berlin. The former administrative office of the Osram lighting solutions manufacturer, located in Munich, was designed by Walter Henn in 1965. An important building for its time, well known as an outstanding example of modernism, as it was the first open-plan office building designed in Europe.
The exhibition allows the public to compare the photographic work of two different generations of architecture photographers. On the one hand, the black and white images captured in the 1960s by photographer Heinrich Heidersberger. On the other, those taken by HGEsch in 2010 and in 2015, when the building was transformed into a refugee reception facility, before being demolished in 2018. The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to the prominent skylines created by HGEsch. Up to eight metres long, these photographs feature a number of large global metropolises captured from rooftops, always at a specific time of the day. The photographer does not try to deceive the observer: on the contrary, he avoids illusions and always offers the public realistic views of the various places, capturing and presenting the cities as a whole.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of Aedes Architecture Forum, credit © HGEsch

Title: HGEsch: House and Horizon - Transformations
Exhibition: March 20 - May 13, 2021
Opening and book presentation: Friday, March 19, 2021
Venue: Aedes Architecture Forum, Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 11 AM - 6.30 PM, Sun-Mon 1-5 PM and Sat, 20 March 2021, 1-5 PM

Speaking at the opening
Dr. h.c. Kristin Feireiss Aedes, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Gunter Henn Architect, Munich
Prof. Dr. Rolf Sachsse Author and Photographer, Bonn
HGEsch Architecture Photographer and Author, Hennef

Aedes cooperation partners: Zumtobel, CEMEX, CAMERICH, Carpet Concept

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