Friederike von Rauch

Enclosure

09/09/2016

05/11/2016

Gallery FIFTY ONE

Opening reception: Thursday, Sept. 8th 2016 from 2 – 6 pm,
in the presence of the artist!

Gallery FIFTY ONE is pleased to announce its third solo show “Enclosure” by the German photographer Friederike von Rauch (1967). Enclosure is the collective name for her latest series in which she examines the space of three distinguished monastic buildings.

The first is the Dominican Monastery of La Tourette near Lyon (Fr), which is just included in the list of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, together with other architectural projects made by Le Corbusier. The other two monasteries are the Roosenberg in Waasmunster (Be) and Maria Regina Martyrum in Berlin (Ger).
In Friederike’s distinctive style, she transforms their contexts, capturing their atmosphere in a most purified way.

Read the full press release here.

Friederike von Rauch

Friederike von Rauch was trained as a silversmith and studied industrial design at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. After working as a location scout for international film productions, which had a strong impact on her curiosity for spaces, she began to focus on her own work in the early 2000s. Since then she has been concerned with space, atmosphere and slowness, and the reduction and concentration of light.

Friederike von Rauch photographs buildings. A complete building or merely a detail. The building on its own, or within its surroundings. The interior or the exterior. Her photographs are meticulously stylized. The framing and the angle are chosen with care. There is also a clear play of lines and sometimes a striking contrast between the concrete-grey surfaces and vibrant color.

Van Rauch describes herself as an intuitive photographer. Her work is not so much about buildings. It’s about spaces. She looks for spots that, to her, are exceptional, but that most people walk by without even a glance.

Silence

In her photographs the silence is the first thing that strikes you. The silence, however, does not equal quiet. There is a tension to the silence. This tension grows from the absence of people; despite the unbreakable link between buildings and human beings. Buildings are made by people and are used by them. The lack of a human presence deprives the buildings of their functionality. The buildings in her photographs are no longer buildings, but monumental sculptures.

As a photographer, she is clearly attracted to spaces. These spaces have to be empty, because that is when, for her, their beauty is best appreciated. Von Rauch however does not intervene in the environment; everything has to stay exactly as it is. So she never asks people to leave the space when she wants to photograph it. That is why there is still a human presence in her work. The spaces have been abandoned, but there is always the possibility that someone might show up. This uncertainty makes these photographs so alien and so exciting at the same time.