Candida Höfer

The exhibition features images from Venice that were created in connection with works for the Biennale. These photographs beautifully demonstrate the interplay between natural and artificial light and how they interpenetrate each other.
In the St. Emmeram Palace series, Candida Höfer demonstrates her eye for the unusual. In her works, she masterfully highlights the contrast between traditional flair and modern ambience and how they nevertheless interpenetrate in the rooms of the castle.
Her current works on Dutch libraries are outstanding examples of the photographer's interest in public space.
Candida Höfer shows the libraries far removed from the hectic searching and strenuous work of the visitors. Through its clarity and focus on a part of the whole, the depiction often achieves ‘an almost magical presence of things’ (quote from Candida Höfer).
The same applies to the series on the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, designed by architect Rem Koolhaas. Shelves, cupboards, chairs, reading rooms, staircases – all objects and places that we use and see every day, but do not perceive. In the artist's photographs, they become the main characters, elevating the image to a metaphysical level. They give us a new access to things and we learn to see the familiar again.