AFTER THE END OF HISTORY
After the End of History - 1
All-Russian Exhibition Center, Moscow, 2015
After the End of History - 2
All-Russian Exhibition Center, Moscow, 2015
After the End of History - 3
All-Russian Exhibition Center, Moscow, 2015
After the End of History - 4
All-Russian Exhibition Center, Moscow, 2015
After the End of History - 6
All-Russian Exhibition Center, Moscow, 2015
After the End of History - 6
All-Russian Exhibition Center, Moscow, 2015
In his series AFTER THE END OF HISTORY Wolfgang Lehrner reflects on the transformability of collective identity, which manifests itself in public space and becomes visible through architecture and artifacts; these “in-between” spaces reflect changes according to the respective interests of time.
His photographic subject, the All-Russian Exhibition Center (VDNKh), has been - was - established in 1935 as “All-Union Agricultural Exhibition” and first opened in 1939. In 1956 the focus changed – it was less about individual achievements of each republic, but more about the achievements of different industries of the Soviet economy.
This led to the conversion of regional pavilions into pavilions for state-of-the-art industries, within the style of modernist architecture. Over the years some of the pavilions were no longer used or deprived from their initially function.
The apparent emptiness in some of Wolfgang’s photographs plays with the idea of both, absence and presence. Artifacts such as the half opened curtain or the vacant chairs could be understood as representatives of former presence, and thus symbolize an in between moment - before and after the show.
Judith Stöckl & Giulia Tamiazzo, 2015