Anna Lehmann-Brauns
Letzter Vorhang

Exhibition:
May 24 to July 6, 2019

Opening:
Thursday, May 23, 2019, 18:30
Introduction by Catrina Sonderegger

Finissage:
Saturday,July 6, 2019, 13:00-17:00


The series Letzter Vorhang by Berlin-born photographer Anna Lehmann-Brauns captures the final moments of the historic theatre buildings ‚Komödie am Kurfürstendamm‘ and ‚Theater am Kurfürstendamm‘. The two buildings which date back to the 1920s and were designed by the Jewish theatre-architect Oskar Kaufmann, were closed to the public in May of 2018. Shorty thereafter, in June of 2018, the demolition work began.
Not only the architecture of the buildings, but also the plays and people who inhabited the site over the years, signify the importance of these locations for the German world of theatre. In other words: these buildings were a German cultural treasure. With that being said, it comes as no surprise that Lehmann-Brauns’ photographic series stands for a critical voice against the demolition the two buildings.
Lehmann-Brauns understands space as a place of subjective and collective memory. Even though the photographs are deserted, the viewer can still sense the presence of the people who once inhabited these venues. Letzter Vorhang represents a bygone atmosphere and therefore goes well beyond simply documenting these locations that once were the heart of German theatre.