Martin Eberle created his Temporary Spaces series in the 1990s—a time when clubs and quasi-clubs were helping to define the image of a reunited Berlin.
Martin Eberle created his Temporary Spaces series in the 1990s—a time when clubs and quasi-clubs were helping to define the image of a reunited Berlin. Exactly ten years after Gestalten published the milestone book of the same name, select photography from this series as well as newer work from After Show will be shown at our Gestalten Space.
Spanning a period of 10 years, the stunning photographs of Temporary Spaces were the first to document the benchmark locations of Berlin’s then-burgeoning club scene as they really were. By radically reducing them to their empty spaces, juxtaposing run-down facades and lovingly crafted interiors with architectural brutality, Eberle has perfectly captured their now legendary, ramshackle hipness. Today, when nothing remains of these spaces and the musical pulse of the city has evolved, it is well worth a compelling look back at the improvised coolness that helped make Berlin the celebrated magnet for musical and other creative talent that it has become.
The show is also made up of images from the series After Show, which was born out of Eberle’s time helping to manage the quasi-club galerie berlintokyo, described by Vogue in 1997 as »the most modern basement in Europe.« In this position, Eberle got to know a generation of Berlin musicians that is increasingly determining the musical profile of the city today. He started his work on this ongoing series in 2004 out of a desire to document the role of these artists, some of whom have become friends, on stage and in our time. The portraits of performers including Peaches and Miss Kittin that make up After Show are taken immediately following a concert in any kind of room that can be found backstage. Eberle captures personal moments of excitement and turbulence, physical exhaustion, and the aftermath of excess with his large-format camera. The portraits created in this way are static and precise, but, because not everything that happens at the moment of exposure can be planned, simultaneously dynamic and surprising.
The book Temporary Spaces will also be on sale at the show.
