Barbara Klemm. Light and Dark. in Leipzig is the 30th stop of the touring exhibition. On their journey, Klemm's works have been on display in Poland, Russia, Mexico and South Korea, for example.
The photography exhibition can be seen at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Leipzig from November 30, 2024 to March 23. 2025.
Exhibition opening: November 29, 2024
Photography as documentation and artistic inspiration
Many of Klemm's photographs have become “icons of contemporary history” and have shaped the cultural memory of several generations. It is a photographic work that combines documentation and artistic inspiration in a way rarely found in the German press. Barbara Klemm adds her own perspective to the supposedly objective documentary and follows the design rules of art in her image compositions.
Although these photographs were mostly commissioned by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - for which Barbara Klemm worked from 1959 as a laboratory assistant and in cliché production, and from 1970 as an editorial photographer specializing in politics and the arts section - they are far more than reportage images made for the day.
Social insights from East and West Germany before and after reunification
The images show the most important areas of social life in the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. A clear focus of the exhibition is on photographs taken in East and West Germany before and after reunification. There are pictures from all areas of social life - from politics, culture and the economy - of precarious and everyday situations of social reality, of demonstrations, protests and the lives of immigrants as well as of cultural events, mass events and urban spaces.
Ursula Zeller and Matthias Flügge in collaboration with Barbara Klemm.
Franciska Zólyom, Director of the Gallery of Contemporary Art Leipzig, has taken over the installation of the exhibition in Leipzig.
More about Barbara Klemm, her work and the touring exhibition on ifa Agora.
The ifa Agora is the digital platform for the art holdings and touring exhibitions of the ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
With over 20 touring exhibitions currently travelling across the globe and with its diverse event programmes on contemporary art, the ifa links the German art scene with internationally active cultural creators and forms cooperations and networks. The projects, many of which were developed in co-creation with local partners, cover the various disciplines of modern and contemporary fine arts – from current themes in architecture, photography and design to Bauhaus and monographic exhibitions such as Rosemarie Trockel or Marcel Odenbach. These projects generate local meeting platforms and allow international perspectives on topics of global relevance. The ifa also provides loan exhibits to interested museums.
