Artworks
Bernauer Straße [Bernauer Street]
photography
![Bernauer Straße [Rua Bernauer]](https://cms.macam.pt/storage/uploads/thumbs/inarte-work-3317_w840.jpg)
Date
2006
Technique
Chromogenic print mounted to Perspex
Dimensions
100 x 361,8 cm (díptico - 100 x 181,9; 100 x 179,9 cm)
With photography as her primary medium, Sabine Hornig frequently explores specific glass windows. In 2001 she began photographing the series - Fenster
(Window), in which she portrays empty shop windows in Berlin. The motif does not seem relevant, but after a brief moment, the viewer's eye perceives the levels of complexity of this representation: they are, on the one hand, reflections of trees, parks and opposing streets and, on the other hand, the view of what is happening on the surface of the glass and inside the shops.
The 2006 diptych - Bernauer Strasse
records a construction site which, behind glass, shows a jackhammer, a coffee pot and bottles on a worktable - a record of the presence of construction workers, not present in the image. These are also the traces of a performed activity and the possibility of that work starting again at any moment, which is almost made eternal by the artist's action.
In the image reflection, the winter of the - Mitte
district in Berlin appears with common residential buildings and a park with bare trees, covered in snow. The almost crystalline quality of the reflection matches the light of a cold and dry German winter day, depicted in a moment of twilight, at sunrise or sunset.
The choice of the street that gives the piece its title is curious - when Berlin was a divided city, the Wall erected in 1961 ran along this street. Bernauer Straße became famous for fugitives jumping out of windows of flat blocks in the eastern part of the city, down to the street to the west. Several people died here when the border control was reinforced.
DC
(Window), in which she portrays empty shop windows in Berlin. The motif does not seem relevant, but after a brief moment, the viewer's eye perceives the levels of complexity of this representation: they are, on the one hand, reflections of trees, parks and opposing streets and, on the other hand, the view of what is happening on the surface of the glass and inside the shops.
The 2006 diptych - Bernauer Strasse
records a construction site which, behind glass, shows a jackhammer, a coffee pot and bottles on a worktable - a record of the presence of construction workers, not present in the image. These are also the traces of a performed activity and the possibility of that work starting again at any moment, which is almost made eternal by the artist's action.
In the image reflection, the winter of the - Mitte
district in Berlin appears with common residential buildings and a park with bare trees, covered in snow. The almost crystalline quality of the reflection matches the light of a cold and dry German winter day, depicted in a moment of twilight, at sunrise or sunset.
The choice of the street that gives the piece its title is curious - when Berlin was a divided city, the Wall erected in 1961 ran along this street. Bernauer Straße became famous for fugitives jumping out of windows of flat blocks in the eastern part of the city, down to the street to the west. Several people died here when the border control was reinforced.
DC