The opening reception, free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 42 Washington Mews, New York, N.Y.
Deutsches Haus at NYU presents "New York — Berlin, City Dialogues," an exhibition by photographer Sabine Erlenwein. The opening reception, free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 42 Washington Mews (enter the Mews from University Place), New York, N.Y.
Sabine Erlenwein had three rolls of film and wanted to use her camera in the streets of New York, a city she hardly knew. Time was limited, it was the day of Chinese New Year, it was cold, snow dusting the streets, and intermittent sunshine for several minutes at a time. This very special abstraction of a cold winter’s day landscape was ideal for black and white film, ideal for a wintery walk in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Five days later in Berlin Sabine Erlenwein decided to use three further rolls of film to capture the urban landscape of the area. Again she walked for about three hours from Potsdamer Platz to Brandenburger Tor and Unter den Linden. It was a mild winter’s day, again with sunshine here and there. She had a feeling that there could be a kind of conversation between these two big cities — as if the view through the camera could connect them.
Sabine ended up with 106 photos of each city, captured in six hours spent walking in New York and Berlin. This makes the selection of images very personal. Once in Berlin, she could no longer identify which scenes had been photographed in New York, so it was a surprise to the photographer to see what motifs had caught her eye in New York compared to Berlin. In the end, her inner vision connected both cities in her images with parallels in architecture, corresponding wall paintings and sceneries.
The Detusches Haus exhibit runs until March 14.
Sabine Erlenwein was born in Munich and started learning photography under the guidance of her visual arts teacher and artist Jürgen Schlamp. She received her M.A. in Philosophy and German Literature from the Ludwig Maximilian’s University in 1987. Erlenwein completed seven years of freelance work for the Goethe-Institut in Munich from 1985-1992. Since 1993, she has served as director of the Goethe-Institutes in India, Namibia, and San Francisco, and has been especially involved in organizing German film festivals in these locations. Since 2011 she has been the president of the Berlin and Beyond Film Festival.
For further information about the Feb. 9 opening, please call Deutsches Haus at 212.998.8660 or email deutsches.haus@nyu.edu.