CONTINENT – In Search of Europe

Over the agency’s 30-year history, the OSTKREUZ photographers have often taken a stand on ongoing social and political events in independent exhibition projects. In their current exhibition, which the 23 members of OSTKREUZ see as a declaration of love for Europe, the collective examines the continent’s present. Personal, social and political aspects of togetherness in Europe are taken into account from a perspective that is constantly critical while remaining empathetic. Questions of identity, security, migration and integration as well as humanism, democracy and freedom of opinion are examined. The focus of the artistic/photographic positions is mostly on images of people and their surroundings. As a contemporary statement at Pariser Platz, the exhibition provides impetus for the current debate on the future of Europe and asks: “How will our continent and the way its people live together evolve?”

Curator Ingo Taubhorn presents the different positions of the OSTKREUZ photographers on a guided tour of the currently closed exhibition.

The OSTKREUZ agency of photographers was founded in East Berlin in 1990 and is now considered to be the most renowned collective of photographers in Germany. Its members have won numerous accolades as author photographers and were awarded the Konrad Wolf Prize by the Akademie der Künste in 2013.