A German-language publication accompanies the exhibition Heidi Specker: DamenzimmerHerrenschnitt. A homage to Aenne Biermann, featuring texts by Heidi Specker and Ronya Othmann, as well as contributions by Claudia Tittel, Daria Brasca, Anneliese Schallmeiner and Albena Zlatanova.
Heidi Specker’s exhibition is the outcome of her long-term artistic exploration of the life and work of the Jewish photographer Aenne Biermann (1898–1933). Based on public and private collections, the memories of descendants, as well as historical research into the Biermann family’s story of flight, Heidi Specker reconstructs a history shaped by the political upheavals of the twentieth century.
Aenne Biermann was a prominent figure in Gera’s urban society, a cosmopolitan centre of modernist culture during the 1920s. In just a few years, the autodidact became an important representative of avant-garde photography. She wore her hair short, in a “gentlemen’s cut”, and had her study designed by one of the most fashionable architects of her time. Her photographs reflect the principles of the “New Vision” movement, combining close observation of the everyday environment with unconventional perspectives on people and objects.
Heidi Specker approaches the life and work of Aenne Biermann, engaging with her both artistically and on a personal level. Loss plays an important role in this process. Biermann’s career ended abruptly with her premature death after an illness. A large part of her photographic estate was seized by the National Socialists or is considered lost. Over the course of her artistic research, Specker travelled to Gera, Trieste and Vienna, and made contact with Aenne Biermann’s grandchildren. Through a series of juxtapositions, she reinterprets the photographer’s themes and compositions, appropriating and translating them into the present. Two video works recount important stages in her search: In Amnesia Gera, Heidi Specker contrasts Gera’s once cosmopolitan urban life with the present-day marches organised by right-wing groups. In Wien Vienna, she explores the significance of material traces for memory. Together with the design duo BLESS, she developed a specific exhibition architecture and an edition inspired by the historical furnishings of Aenne Biermann’s “ladies’ room.”
The publication will be presented by the artist and the author Ronya Othmann as part of the event.