until Sunday March 06 2016

Sammlung moderne Kunst - Pinakothek der Moderne
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The Ukraine Series by Johanna Diehl (b. 1977 in Hamburg) comprises views into former synagogues in modern-day Ukraine. Deconsecrated and damaged during WWII by the German occupation, many were left to fall apart under the Soviet regime, though frequently they were reutilised to serve a new, secular function.

In her photographs Johanna Diehl seeks out the historical layers of these alienated places. The buildings, now used as gyms, production halls, event venues or business premises, are depicted principally from the interior and always void of people. The artist thus directs our gaze towards the structure and furnishings of the rooms, individual elements of which often still bear visible traces of their original religious function. Architecture is transformed into a silent witness of times gone by; what it has experienced is revealed just as much through the surviving remnants of its interior, its tears and cracks, as through its new surfaces and modern furnishings.