Nürnberg: Juergen Teller
For his first exhibition at Galerist, German photographer Juergen Teller presents a major body of work, Nürnberg. The exhibition is an emotional panorama that draws on personal history, both new and old; a celebration of family and an investigation of the past, in private and public terms, as represented by the city of Nürnberg. The exhibition, to be seen at Galerist between May 10th and June 14th, 2008 under the sponsorship of Citibank. This work has previously been exhibited at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, Foundation Cartier, Paris and Haus der Kunst, Munich as well as being published as a book by Steidl.
There is a partially completed group of Nazi monuments: a coliseum, a parade ground, a huge stadium in the centre of Nürnberg, which was the home of the National Socialist Party in the 1940s and following, the site of subsequent war trials. Designed by Albert Speer and personally commissioned by Adolf Hitler, the completed Zeppelintribüne at the Reich Party Rally grounds is well documented as the site of Nazi propaganda rallies, memorably captured on film by Leni Riefenstahl in Triumph of the Will. Today, the Zeppelintribüne parade ground still stands, remarkable in its architecture and the failure of its ideal. It has not been turned into a historical study centre as the neighbouring coliseum has, nor has it been destroyed. Instead it has been ignored and left into a gentle process of decay, used by locals as a dog walk, rollerblading or a rock concert.
Over four clear seasons during a year, Juergen Teller returned to Nürnberg to photograph this site so familiar from his childhood and the childhood of his mother. In recording the advancing decay, Teller also confronted the complicated residue of German history so present in the melancholia of his generation. The transformation of this brutal place from hard fascism into romantic ruin is captured by the weeds that struggle through the huge regular blocks of stone and ranks of steps to soften the geometry and offer a metaphorical interpretation of reinvention. The weeds are captured in spring, summer, autumn and winter, in rain, snow and bright sunshine and their delicate beauty and determined presence neutralises the harsh history of the site, proposing a future redemption.
Parallel to these still life images and also shot over the same four seasons, Teller photographed his growing family, himself and the surroundings of his family home in the woods of Bubenreuth. There are portraits of his children, his baby son in the bath, echoing the upturned faces of the summer flowers at the Reich Party Rally grounds, and of a teenage girl unknowingly hopeful and exotic amongst the cheap prizes of a rifle range at the local Bier fest. Portraits of vulnerability and introspection complement the images of the weeds at the Reich Party Rally grounds to make a moving proposition of cyclical renewal, hope and openness.
Teller is regarded as one of the most influential fashion photographers of his time. In this show he proposes to also unveil a nude study of British supermodel Lily Cole, taken in Hydra, Greece. Juergen Teller lives and works in London.
