Eröffnung - LOVE [in] the CITY - Fotoausstellung zum 11. Hamburger Architektur Sommer und zum Fotosommer der 9. Triennale der Photographie

In the organizer's words:

LOVE [in] the CITY

for the 11th Hamburg Architecture Summer and

the photo summer of the 9th Triennial of Photography

The development of the city from unusual perspectives.

Three photographic positions by Claas Möller & Peter Bruns, Gerald Chors and Michael Penner.

The exhibition in the xpon-art gallery is open until July 12.

Vernissage with the photographers on June 11, 2026 at 7 pm.

LOVE [in] the City is a photo exhibition of three positions of strolling photographers who document Hamburg's cityscape with unusual perspectives. Claas Möller and Peter Bruns, winners of the Georg Koppmann Prize for Hamburg City Photography, show a variety of real and ersatz religions in architectural curiosities. Gerald Chors documented the Hamburg cityscape of 1991 with the first photos of the Smileys of OZ and juxtaposes them with photos of the same places today. For years, Michael Penner has been photographing building plans and posters that conceal new buildings and show what is to become, but in doing so develop a life of their own, achieving an irritating state of limbo in his photographs that causes the familiar view to waver and describes the ambivalence of development well.

Observations that go beyond snapshots, reflect processes and, without many words, reflect the love for and in the city.

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In addition to the classical great religious buildings of different eras, there are countless places where social phenomena manifest themselves - a multitude of religions in often unusual and unfamiliar places, and those that can be described as substitute religions: Temples of consumption, soccer cathedrals or car palaces. In their photographic search for architectural gems, utopias, curiosities and oddities, CLAAS MÖLLER and PETER BRUNS approach this phenomenon and extract visual parallels and breaks in order to reorganize and relate them.

During a walk 35 years ago, GERALD CHORS documented the first smileys that suddenly appeared everywhere in the city on a single 35mm film. Only later was there a name for them: Walter Josef Fischer, then known as OZ. Today, opinions about graffiti are beginning to change in wider society, as shown by the success of the exhibition 'A City Becomes Colorful' at the Museum of Hamburg History, which included a representative image of the series in large format. While the mayor of Naples recently admitted that the many graffiti are an essential part of the city's identity, in Hamburg the smileys are still being removed at great expense. OZ spent much of his life in prison, although all he did was put a smile on the face of the city and "was always looking for love." The photographs were taken again after 35 years and juxtaposed. The result was surprising.

MICHAEL PENNER'sphotographs of the construction sites that are mostly covered up today are found views in public spaces that he has been photographing for over 10 years. On display are building plans and posters, the Potemkin villages of modernity, as he calls them. In this case, however, they do not show what is, but what will be, or rather, what should be. However, the mock-ups of utopias and promises develop a life of their own in public space and are often interrupted by reality. The motifs are irritating, the familiar view begins to waver, and even if they suggest it at first glance, these are not photo collages. A surreal state of suspension is achieved that captures the ambiguity of our cities and their development.

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Participating artists:

Claas Möller & Peter Bruns, Gerald Chors, Michael Penner

xpon-art gallery

Repsoldstraße 45, 20097 Hamburg

@xponartgallery | www.xpon-art.de

opening

Thu June 11, 7 pm

Opening hours:

Sat-Thu 6 - 9 pm

Finissage

Sun July 12 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

With the kind support of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media

Price information:

Free admission, because everyone should have access to culture. However, you are welcome to make a donation if you would otherwise honor it. Drinks are available for a donation. We don't offer anything that we wouldn't drink ourselves. We conceive these exhibitions and run this space because we think it is important that there are constant and challenging positions between state museums and commercial galleries on the one hand and changing platforms for emerging art on the other - on the one hand to better promote artists who are not yet established, and on the other to create a more vibrant culture for communication between art and the public.