In the late 1980s and early 1990s, artists began to seek out new modes of creating and living in Berlin. Some flocked to the city to work without the economic and physical constraints felt elsewhere, while others founded artist communities and engaged in activities that attracted people from all over the world.

To speak about this period, one that frames the fall of the Berlin Wall, Andreas Rost will join Dr. Candice M. Hamelin, art historian and curator of the exhibition Berlin, 1945–2000: A Photographic Subject, at the Reinbeckhallen on May 7th, 2021. This talk will take place in English and be broadcasted live on Photography in Berlin’s Instagram account (pib.photographyinberlin), following the artist’s two-day takeover of the account.

Andreas Rost (b. 1966 in Weimar)

Following the events of 1989/90, Andreas Rost occupied the Friedrichstraßepassagen, a five-storey building in the Scheunenviertel that was heavily damaged during the Second World War and abandoned at the time. There, in the midst of its crumbling walls and infrastructure, he co-founded the artists’ community Tacheles. During its initial years, Rost photographed its members and their surroundings. He also asked Annette Gries to interview artists and included transcribed passages in Tacheles: Alltag im Chaos (Tacheles: Every day in Chaos, 1990–1993). The latter, a series that dovetails portraits, architectural photographs, and texts, and that underscores the opportunities that Berlin’s voids offered, is shown alongside never-before-seen images of the Love Parade, an event photographed by Rost in the 1990s, in the Reinbeckhallen.

Rost studied photography under Arno Fischer and Evelyn Richter at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig between 1988 and 1993. Since the early 1990s, he has worked as a freelance photographer, curator, and lecturer. He has been the recipient of numerous grants, including the Stiftung Kunstfonds Berlin, and has recently published Das Jahr 1990 freilegen (The Year 1990: Uncovered, 2019) and 3. Oktober 90 (October 3, 1990, 2020). Rost lives and works in Berlin.