Update #2, May 2020: The exhibition can currently be visited by appointment. You can also explore the exhibition via this 3D tour!

Update #1, March 2020: This venue is currently closed due to Covid-19. In the meantime, please enjoy exploring the works in digital form here on PiB. News by this venue are also available in PiB’s article #ClosedButOpen.

–

About the exhibition:

The exhibition MISE-EN-SCÈNE brings two photographers together, whose bodies of work and working practices are profoundly sympathetic with each other. The visual dialogue draws on a carefully sought out and compositionally treasured theatricality in our shared urban environments and a seemingly natural but then artistically broken romanticism. Both artists create an abandoned urban stage with spatial depth and design their pictures narratively and meaningfully.

MISE-EN-SCÈNE is the film term for this very carefully structured optical image where a scene looks almost like a painting. Lehr and Rogers share a love of Light, both manmade and natural. They also emphasize the meditative state of experience in their work, which is easy to retrace by a sort of privateness their photos evoke.

In his photography Grant Simon Rogers masterly applies Day for Night, a cinematic technique of the mid-twentieth century used to simulate a night scene while shooting in daylight. – François Truffaut brought this method closer to the general public for the first time in his famous film “La Nuit Américaine”. In a half-meditative state the artist calls “Photopsychotherapy” he creates pictures almost exclusively “in the camera” without any computer post-processing. He has been on this Homeric photographic odyssey to a place he calls “Terra Incognita” for several years now. Rogers’ love of Art History, storytelling and vintage cinema is clearly apparent in his work. His main visual theme is often trees, which also earned him the title “The Man Who Flashes at Trees”.

Markus Lehr‘s photographs explore the creative power of man, both the intended and the accidental. Using the light, the atmosphere and the dialogue between the objects, he creates scenes with a surprising dramaturgy and provides a completely new access to these places. Although the themes were found in banal urban or natural surroundings, Markus Lehr’s photography leaves the impression of an intentionally set stage. This beautiful and sometimes absurd drama takes place on our very doorstep and yet it feels emphasized and often surreal in his works.

GRANT SIMON ROGERS (*1964) trained at Portsmouth College of Art and is devoted to art education and visual literacy for all ages. He is a visiting lecturer at the National Gallery, at Christie’s Education, at the Central Saint Martins -University of Arts, and other museums and cultural institutions in London and across Continental Europe. The artist lives and works in London and Berlin. Among the many influences that inspire Grant’s works are a blend of storytelling -from William Blake to Philip Pullman -and all forms of visual art from its early beginnings until now. Some of the artist’s particularly strong influences are the films of Powell & Pressburger and Akira Kurosawa.

All articles here on PiB for Grant Simon Rogers

MARKUS LEHR (*1959) studied communication at the University of Arts in Berlin and has been working in the field of marketing and new media ever since. Several notable international publications have featured his pictures. His work was published in a first book in December 2013, followed by two others in 2017 and 2018. The artist showcased his images at solo and group exhibitions in Germany, France and the UK. He lives and works in Berlin. Among the artists who influenced him the most were Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman and Stephen Shore, but he was also deeply impressed by the films by Michelangelo Antonioni such as “Il deserto rosso” and “Blow up”.

All articles here on PiB for Markus Lehr

Mar 14 — Apr 25 extended to May 30, 2020
Opening Reception: Friday, March 13, 7 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 28, 6 pm
Finissage: Saturday, April 25, 6 pm
Currently open by appointment!
NEW DATE for the Finissage: End of May, exact date/time TBA

Atelier Kirchner

Grunewaldstraße 15, 10823 Berlin (First backyard, ground floor on the left)
[District: Schöneberg | Borough: Tempelhof-Schöneberg]

Opening hours: Wed, Fri, Sat 4 – 6 pm, Thu 6 – 8 pm

Admission free