Deichtorhallen Hamburg – PHOXXI. Temporary House of Photography

Abdulhamid Kircher, who grew up between Berlin and New York, seeks within analogue photography possibilities of­ reconciliation and intimate encounter, while documenting the effects of patriarchal violence within his closest ­circles. His spatial photographic installation Rotting from Within can be seen as a fragmented family album – an inquiry into the ambivalent relationship to his paternal lineage.

Like a living archive, his works give form to the ceaseless effort to under­ stand kinship, to tend to its wounds, and to reach their core. Amidst these charged and conflicted entanglements, the photographic image becomes a place of refuge, emphasizing the distance between photographer, event, and ­ representation.
With its focus on photochemical experimentation and the emotional frequencies of analogue color photography, the exhibition brings Abdulhamid Kircher in dialogue with­ other artists whose work transforms the darkroom from a site of grief and closeness into a laboratory of ­ emotional trans­ formation. In this context, PHOXXI itself becomes a darkroom – a space of photographic experimentation and exchange.

This exhibition is curated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich.