WO DER OSTEN URLAUB MACHTE, 2025
In the series Wo der Osten Urlaub machte, Charlotte Burkhardt explores once-popular GDR holiday resorts that continue to attract people despite open borders and global travel opportunities. Among these loyal tourists are her grandparents who come from the GDR and have maintained ties to these vacation destinations. (…)
The locations of former GDR holiday facilities in Burkhardt’s series interlink individual and collective recollections, becoming a repository of memories, simultaneously subject to the processes of fading and reinterpretation. The landscapes and spaces retain their former social appeal, which are neither entirely lost nor preserved intact. Even though only few people are visible, their presence remains palpable. The motifs evoke shared experiences, socially defined vacations and lingering past.
Text by Polina Arzhenovskova
part of the group exhibition Worlds within Worlds 20.2. - 16.8.26 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation
The artistic positions presented in the exhibition reflect biographical experiences, subjective modes of perception, and personal interests. At the same time, these individual points of departure intertwine with collective realities and overarching themes. They depict everyday as well as supernatural, hopeful as well as catastrophic moments—always in search of transitions, thresholds, or boundaries. Contemporary microcosms are set against spaces of memory in which East German remembrance, colonial continuities, and migrant resilience are negotiated. Urban infrastructures and human systems encounter the vulnerability of nature, revealing a fragile balance. Social tensions—both present and past—are processed visually.
Photo by Jakob Dieckmann
The artists featured in the exhibition are: Lena Bils, Charlotte Burkhardt, Simon Gilmer, E. Elif Gönüllü, Nelly Habelt, Philomena Hummel, Elinor Zoë Karl, Lea Kulens, Len David Oswald, Marie Schwarze, Markus Seibel, Madlen Strebel, Tatiana Vdovenko, and Kerstin Weiser.
The exhibition was curated by Polina Arzhenovskova, Leonie Cecco, Fanny Dommers, Aissata Drieling, Charlotte Häger, Antonia Janke, Egor Miroshnichenko, Alexandra Rücker, Mattis Thomsen, Max Zimmermann, and Carla Veit. The collaboration is conducted under the direction of Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation; Stefanie Heraeus, Head of the Curatorial Studies program at Goethe University Frankfurt; and Martin Liebscher, Professor at HfG Offenbach.