In the organizer's words:

What is real, what is a façade? And when does staging become reality? Sandra
Ratkovic combines two photographic explorations in her exhibition: In Moscow, she searches
traces of Soviet history in everyday life today. In contrast
she confronts the mythical images of the "Wild West" from German theme parks
with the reality of the American present. Both series open up a view of cultural
narratives that oscillate between projection and lived everyday life.
The exhibition illustrates a juxtaposition of photographs from today's
USA with images from so-called western towns in Germany.
Western towns are themed amusement parks or fantasy places that function analogously to an urban community
community: equipped with mayors, saloons, prisons and cemeteries where people can
cemeteries where you can be buried and churches where you can get married 'in style'.
Among other things, historical battles are organized; heroism and cannonballs
are part of the fun at the weekend.
What happens when this past, mystified image of the USA, which is lived in German
Western towns meets descriptions of the state of the USA today, which exists in parallel?
today? Where do we find differences and areas of friction, and where perhaps surprising parallels?
parallels?
Photographer Sandra Ratkovic explored this complex question by traveling to three different regions of the USA
three different regions of the USA (New York, Miami, Cape Canaveral) and three German western
German western cities in Berlin, Brandenburg and Rhineland-Palatinate.
In contrast, the exhibition presents images from Moscow that are characterized by staging
and in which reality and artificiality can hardly be distinguished from one another.
Sandra Ratkovic
REALLY?
Vernissage: Thu, 4.12.2025, 7 pm
Exhibition: 5.12.2025 to 22.1.2026
Guided artist tours: Sat, 13.12.25, 4 pm and Sat, 10.1.26, 4 pm
Photo gallery Friedrichshain
Helsingforser Pl. 1, 10243 Berlin
.

https://fotogalerie.berlin/