OSTKREUZ: Berlin Renaissance
The exhibition “Dream On—Berlin, the 90s” at C/O Berlin, offers a flashback into the decade after the fall of the Wall separating East and West Germany, which laid the foundations for the city we know today.
While the consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall echoed around the world, the city became ground zero for societal transformations and the rise of a strong current of subcultures in art and music. A new wave of optimism emerged, clashing with the challenges of reunification.
Laying of the foundation stone of the Hessian State Representation at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin September 17, 1999 © Ute Mahler/OSTKREUZ
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Wrapped Reichstag, the final night, Berlin, 1995 © Annette Hauschild/OSTKREUZ.
Fallow land by the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, 1990 © Estate Sibylle Bergemann/OSTKREUZ
It was during this era, in 1990, that a group of photographers from former East Germany founded the photo agency OSTKREUZ, today one of the country’s most important photo agencies. Through their eyes, the exhibition looks at pivotal moments and daily life, from the making of Potsdamer Platz as we know it to youth dancing in front of the Reichstag wrapped by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
Chaos Computer Camp, Altlandsberg, Brandenburg, August 1999 © Maurice Weiss/OSTKREUZ
From the series “Tresor“, Berlin, 2000 © Thomas Meyer/OSTKREUZ
Construction site at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, looking east, 1994 © Harald Hauswald/OSTKREUZ
