Juergen Teller. Where we come from

In the organizer's words:

As one of the most renowned international photographers, Juergen Teller (*1964 in Erlangen) has been known since the late 1980s for his unconventional and authentic portraits, fashion campaigns and editorials. Last December, Teller, who was the first living photographer to exhibit at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, showed his most extensive exhibition to date, entitled i need to live, which was on display at the Triennale in Milan earlier this year.

In addition to his commercial commissions, Teller has also created extensive personal works in which he explores himself, his family, his roots and his identity. Teller has been working with his wife Dovile Drizyte for five years.

With the exhibition Where we come from, he returns to Erlangen and the Kunstpalais after seven years with his most personal exhibition to date. The show begins with Teller and Drizyte's playful series We are Building our Future Together from 2021, which shows the couple in brightly colored protective suits on construction sites in Naples and Venice, in anticipation of their future life together.

At the center of this intimate exhibition is Teller's nuclear family - himself, his wife and his youngest daughter Iggy, in the context of their respective backgrounds. In the photos of his childhood home in Bubenreuth and the Franconian Forest and those of his wife's hometown, Kaunas in Lithuania, Teller captures astonishing parallels between the two places.

From tender moments such as his romantic conception series The Myth to the solemn spectacle of the procession of San Paolo and the blessing of baby Iggy at the Palazzolo Acreide in A Sciuta, 2023, Teller conveys his insatiable curiosity about life while expressing the fragility of human existence.

In the immersive video projection Men (6'46"), Teller tells a story he heard when he first met his father-in-law Mykolas. For the video work, Teller re-enacted the equally serious, grotesque and captivating story with actor Alexander Skarsgård in the year 2023 in the north of Sweden. It is not least a multi-layered examination of Teller's difficult relationship with his deceased father.

Most amusing, however, is the most recent series Iggy Teller does Teller, in which Teller has restaged his iconic images with his daughter as the star for the Document Journal. Iggy mischievously adopts the same poses as the original motifs - she slips out of a bag like Victoria Beckham or wears a pink wig in bed like Kate Moss in the famous photo Young Pink Kate, London 1998.

Where we come from embodies Teller's sense of honesty and trust - in his subjects, his work, his family and his attitude to life.