Berlin has the highest density of shopping centers per inhabitant in Germany. Almost 70 of them have been built in the capital over the last few decades. In addition to the consumer-focused use of the centers, the spacious areas of the buildings have also become socio-cultural places of encounter. The interior of the centers is often a remnant from another era and an informal meeting place for a wide variety of social groups. Due to globalized and digitalized retail structures, the shopping center is increasingly losing its relevance as a place of consumption. While retailers are withdrawing from the buildings and the flow of visitors is decreasing, real estate developers are fantasizing about urban transformation concepts for the department stores of the future. But what remains when the consumption-oriented concept of the shopping center no longer works?

Text by Esther Ahr

The series was exhibited within the group exhibition "things are closer than they seem" in 2025 as part of European Month of Photography in Berlin as well as Foto Wien at Semmelweisklinik in Vienna, both together with Sensored Collective.

Hotel rooms accumulate to form a large building complex, the undulating surface of a pool area is covered with tiny blue tiles and surrounded by palm trees. Over the past few decades, the tourism industry's vacation destinations have developed into homogeneous and monofunctional environments, resulting in corresponding typologies. These artificial spaces are characterized by hotel chains, leisure temples and consumption opportunities. They are designed for an idealized experience, offering an escape from everyday life for a predetermined period of time ranging from a few days to several weeks.
The temporal cycle of these locations is divided into high season, low season, mid-season, and pre-season. To ensure that everything appears and works perfectly during the high season, there is intensive preparation in advance — an intermediate state, the dystopia before the (vacation) utopia?

The series was exhibited within the group exhibition Verträumt in 2023 at Kunstraum Potsdamer Straße in Berlin, curated by Artburst Berlin and published in Trans Magazin at ETH Zürich, Nr. 42 TIME.

In the Stadtrandsiedlung Malchow, narratives from different historical contexts seem to weave together into a blurred and ambiguous present. [...] A look into the past reveals the historical origins of the housing estate. Built as part of housing policy and as a propaganda tool of the Nazi regime, the estate was [...] modeled on the Weimar Republic's unemployment housing estates. [...] Originally constructed on municipal sewage fields as a self-sufficient island on the city's outskirts, the housing estate now finds itself in a denser urban context. The advancing urbanization of the periphery is transforming everyday life in the housing estate, as the growing metropolis reshapes the living conditions of its residents. [...] Since monument preservation legislation formally conserves the typology of the single-family home and does not permit transformation of the existing building stock in response to changing social conditions. Those who do not conform to the concept of the heteronormative nuclear family are denied participation in shaping their own neighborhood. More fundamentally, the question arises as to what extent the trend toward reconstructive new construction, justified in the name of formal monument protection, preserves fragments of Nazi ideology and a past that persists in our society today. Building regulations draw boundaries where none exist. This ensures that the patriarchal and capitalist construct of the nuclear family remains anchored in a present where boundaries are increasingly dissolving.

The series was published in SITUATION - Magazine for Spatial Questions, No. 02 Who's your Daddy? together with a text by Esther Ahr and exhibited at Grotto as part of the Project Space Festival 2024 in Berlin.

Berlin is growing. It is spoken of a stressed market. As a result, interest is increasingly shifting to the 'second tier' of the city, behind the ring of railroad lines. Here, in contrast to the more and more homogenous inner city, Berlin is rich in diverse typologies, lifestyles and landscapes. Especially in times of overlapping crises, the question should be asked how the city and its surroundings could develop. In this debate, it is essential to actively incorporate the periphery. In order to find answers and strategies for an adequate future of the periphery, it must first be understood and questioned. An Inventory of the Border.
In a photographic field research Berlin was circled once on its city border to Brandenburg. Through an alternative, subjective view on the city's edge, its identity as well as possible potentials are renegotiated.
The border of Berlin is about 230 kilometers long, it is divided into 10 research segments. One analog 35mm film of 36 photos is exposed per section.

10 x 23 km x 36 photos = 360 photos + 360° border.

The selected images were taken on different sections and subsequently combined and curated, in order to identify overarching themes, relationships and identities of the urban fringe.

"Is this still Berlin" was exhibited at Aktionshaus Berlin in a solo exhibition (05/2023). A soundscape by composer and producer Iðunn Iuvenilis accompanied the exhibition. She used field recordings that were made during the field research at the Berlin-Brandenburg border. Leon Klaßen translated the sound loop into a synchronized website.

The project is part of the masters thesis with the same title supervised by Prof. Jan Kampshoff (FG De/Co) and Jan Liesegang and featured on PhMuseum, BaunetzCampus.