Two hundred years ago, Nicéphore Niépce created the world’s first photograph. The works in this exhibition reflect on the technical conditions underlying the medium: in the case of Knoll+Cella, the technical and optical apparatus of the camera obscura, which projects spaces onto a surface using central perspective; Ilse Haider, meanwhile, harnesses the chemical process of permanentiy fixing light and shadow to create a gigantic photogram. Together, these two components
constitute photography.

Ilse Haider’s large-scale, multilayered photographic work, measuring 10 × 6m, is one of two life- size photograms of ash trees created as the basis for a public art project in Munich. The felled trees were transported to a hall converted into a darkroom, where numerous helpers lifted them onto light-sensitive paper under red light. The paper was then exposed and developed in a specially assembled production line. This technique is characteristic of Haider’s practice, yet unique in its scale: the artist normally portrays icons of pop culture and art history on a much
smaller scale.

»About Place« Knoll+Cella explores the relationship between interior and exterior spaces. Frequently changing places of residence, such as hotel rooms or temporarily occupied apartments, are transformed into camera obscuras. This produces an inverted projection of the
exterior onto the interior, and this superimposition of images is then photographed with a camera.