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RÜCKSCHAUFEHLER
Eiko Grimberg
«In Rückschaufehler (Hindsight Bias), Eiko Grimberg looks at the urban design of the Mitte district in Berlin and at the political systems manifest in the architectural structure of its central squares.»
RÜCKSCHAUFEHLER
Eiko Grimberg
Text research by Eiko Grimberg, 22 × 27 cm, 116 pages, 85 color and black & white plates, softcover with flaps, Kodoji Press, Baden 2020
English edition ISBN 978-3-03747-102-9
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German edition ISBN 978-3-03747-101-2
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Starting from the Berliner Schloss (Berlin Palace) – the most prominent subject in Rückschaufehler – the artist’s investigation of architecture, its meaning and instrumentalization spans from the German Empire to reunited Germany.
Grimberg tracks the stones and brings together their traces in a legible manner: the foundation stone of the new palace, the remaining sculptures from more majestic ensembles and recontextualised decorative and façade elements. Some of these elements had been moved by the rubble trains used after WWII to Friedrichsfelde, where the Tierpark Berlin zoo opened in 1955, a counterpoint to West Berlin’s Zoologischer Garten. There, as stylised artefacts, the building features created visual and aesthetic appeal. The images show how in one location political, ideological or religious creeds have been affirmed and adopted, then written over or rejected; in so doing, a fragmented mosaic of its history is assembled.
The images are interwoven with a level of commentary or annotation. In this city planners, architects, historians and writers can be heard. Their quotations mesh into a narrative that provides enlightening connections with the photographs, interesting diversions, humour and ironic observations.
If the myth is true that ruins from the blown up Berlin Palace have been built into an open-air monkey enclosure in the Friedrichsfelde zoo, then the GDR administration has actually shown its sense of humor.
The visual essay is Eiko Grimberg’s artistic form. In several works the Berlin artist has engaged with political marks in urban space. This is the lens through which he understands architecture and its language.
Eiko Grimberg, born 1971 in Karlsruhe, lives and works in Berlin. He studied photography at the Hochschule für Grafik and Buchkunst Leipzig. His works could latterly be seen in the following exhibitions: 2019: exp.1: The Bones of the World / Das Gerippe der Welt, 11th Berlin Biennial; Historiker*innen, Galerie K’, Bremen; Photographic Recall: Italian Rationalist Architecture in Contemporary German Art, UB Anderson Gallery, Buffalo (NY). Rückschaufehler is Eiko Grimberg’s second publication with Kodoji Press.