In addition to their individual artistic practices, Sophia Kesting and Dana Lorenz have collaborated on the ongoing artistic project “Asphalt, Stones, Shards” since 2012. Both artists studied photography at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and graduated in 2018 as Meisterschülerin (postgraduate studies) under Prof. Joachim Brohm.
www.sophiakesting.com
www.danalorenz.de
For the past twelve years Sophia Kesting and Dana Lorenz have been scrutinising, through the medium of photography, the square of Peaceful Revolution (‘Platz der friedlichen Revolution’) in Leipzig and its process of transformation. ‘Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz’ is representative of the ongoing negotiation on how to handle the legacy of GDR architecture and the conflicts in urban planning between societal and economic interests. Only with the conclusion of their work, the controversial usage and development plans that have been under discussion years find closure.
Asphalt, Steine, Scherben (“Asphalt, Stones, Shards”), the title of their artistic project, linguistically orbits the materiality of this public square.
An immense archive of 1,500 black-and-white medium-format photographs, it forms a unique collection of artistic documentary images of political dimension. Hard-lit night shots taken with a flash contrast with fragmentary daytime situations. Any contextualisation in time or space is dismantled by the alternation of real occurrences and staged re-enactments. The sequences of images follow no narrative structure, but enter as individual pictures into a visual dialogue.Their analog approach addresses the historical aspect of documentary work: Sophia Kesting and Dana Lorenz experienced the upheaval of 1989/90 as children—both the euphoria of the Peaceful Revolution and the fall of the Wall, as well as the sobering consequences.The two artistsweave these shared photographic images with their distinct experiences in the publication through biographical text fragments.
The photo book as a printed medium plays a central role at the end of the project and negotiates the transformation process that had not occurred and was not visible by the time the work was completed.The stasis of the site becomes visible in the performative repetition of visual motifs, forming an essential basis for these photographs, which function as a space for thought.
Publication: Publication; 296 pages, 24 × 30 cm, softcover, thread-sewn brochure with printed PVC envelope and inserted fan-fold, offset print
Text: Christin Müller
Design: Bureau Est (Ondine Pannet, David Voss)
ISBN: 978-3-907112-60-1
Price: CHF 48.00
„Gedanken zur Aneignung in der Gemeinschaftsarbeit
von Sophia Kesting und Dana Lorenz" ––
–– A Text by Christina Natlacen (only german)
Exhibtion course
2023 — “Asphalt, Stones, Shards” (Excerpt), Purchase Exhibition, HALLE14, Spinnerei, Leipzig 2021 — “Asphalt, Stones, Shards”, ODP Gallery, f/stop 9. Festival for Photography, Leipzig (Solo exhibition) 2020 — Exhibtion to the Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz, City Office, Leipzig — „Previous“, Galerie 3 Ringe (ODP Gallery)(Group exhibition) 2019 — „Positions: Architekture and Photography“, Lecture, HTWK, Leipzig 2018 — Galerie 3 Ringe, f/stop 8. Festival for Photography, Leipzig (Solo exhibition) — Beck & Eggeling Fine Art, Düsseldorf (Solo exhibition) 2016 — Galerie 3 Ringe, f/stop 7. Festival for Photography, Leipzig (Group exhibition) — German Photographic Academy, Portfoliowalk, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg — 2015 German Photographic Academy, Lecture, Grassimuseum, Leipzig — Museum of City History, Leipzig (Solo exhibition) — 2014 Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig, f/stop 6. Festival for Photography, Leipzig (Solo exhibition)
WIN/WINN, 30. Juli – 13. August 2023, Purchase exhibition, HALLE14, Leipzig
Galerie ODP, 25. – 18. Juli 2021,9. f-stop / Festival for Photography (video recording)
Gallery ODP, 25. – 18. July 2021,9. f-stop / Festival for Photography
Gallery ODP, 25. – 18. July 2021,9. f-stop / Festival for Photography
Gallery ODP, 25. – 18. July 2021,9. f-stop / Festival for Photography
Gallery ODP, 25. – 18. July 2021,9. f-stop / Festival for Photography
Stadtbüro (City Office), 21.09. – 30.10.2020, Leipzig
Gallery ODP, Gallery artists exhibition, 17.07. – 22.08.2020, Leipzig (Group show)
Gallery Drei Ringe, 14.06. – 01.07.2018, 8. f-stop / Festival for Photography, Leipzig
Gallery Drei Ringe, 14.06. – 01.07.2018, 8. f-stop / Festival for Photography, Leipzig
„Picturing Realities: Constructed, Cropped and Reassembled“, 02.02. – 07.04.2018, Beck & Eggeling Fine Art, Düsseldorf (Group exhibition)
„THE AUTHORITIES ARE BADLY INFORMED“, Gallery Drei Ringe, 18.06. – 03.07.2016 , 6. f-stop / Festival for Photography, Leipzig (Group exhibition)
„STATUS QUO. Photographs by Sophia Kesting and Dana Lorenz“, Stadtgeschichtliches Museum (City History Museum), 25.01. – 26.04.2015 , Leipzig
© Sophia Kesting & Dana Lorenz, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023