Andreas trouble.
Mischpoche April 26, 2019 - August 11, 2019
Hamburger Bahnhof – National Gallery of the Present

Andreas bother (born 1979, Chemnitz, formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt, lives in Berlin) became internationally known for his examination of the German past and identity. There is often an ambivalence, almost dark suggestion, inherent in his photographs, which he produces exclusively in analogue form, pointing to the no longer visible but still noticeable consequences of German historiography. The carefully conceived image compositions suggest a certain relationship to theater and production. The proximity to drama, stage and film is evident, among other things, from Hülse's personal biography; his father was the well-known actor Ulrich bother, his mother is the renowned theater director Annegret Hahn. These two personalities, bother's closest family ties, together with other relatives, form the protagonists of his new series of works designed for the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Aktuell - Berlin. In two large-format photographic family portraits, bother brings together the living and deceased members of his family, both on his mother's and father's sides. He had the people who had already died recreated as amazingly lifelike sculptures using photo templates in a complex and intensive production process.

This reveals a very personal examination of the internal family ties of the bother family, some of whom - due to their work - also led a life in public. The psychologically and socially charged aspect of a family portrait is simultaneously juxtaposed with an art theoretical treatise. Because bother's artistic process from photography as the starting material, to plastic replicas in the form of sculptures, and finally to a choreographed grouping, at the end of which there is a photographic family portrait, makes the ambivalent meaning of photography - between truth and construction - abundantly clear. Personal history, social and societal circumstances as well as artistic tradition come together to create a portrait of a family in which contemporary and art history are deeply inscribed.