Jörn Vanhöfen. loop
1 July – 28 October 2015
Opening: Sunday, 28 June 2015, 11 am

Jörn Vanhöfens images focus on upheaval. Born in 1961, the photographer has documented traces of the destruction of landscapes or urban areas in different regions of the world over the past few years. His images play with the aesthetical concepts of beauty and horror. 

For the photo triennale RAY 2015, Vanhöfen aimed his focus on the Rhein-Main region and found private photo material in Rüsselsheim of former “immigrant workers”. He hired Chinese laborers near Hong Kong to reproduce his selection of images. He chose several showcases outside a cinema in the city that has been closed for years as his place of exhibition. Decades later, Vanhöfen thus brought the private lives of these people to the surface in “Temporary Workers”. The second part of his work, “In jener Erinnerung erblühen die Bilder” (in that memory the images blossom) is dedicated to the location where he discovered the photographs, the former rooming house for foreign workers at Opel. Now rundown, it is located in the midst of the modern architecture of the automotive plant and is used by trainees as a break room. Vanhöfen presents this setting. With that, he renews the original quality of photography as a tool of remembrance by utilizing his artistic possibilities and currently makes migration a topic of discussion. His new production “Grundweg”, 2015 is a part of his solo exhibition of different groups of work called “Loop” that will be shown at the Opelvillen at the same time.

Curator: Dr. Beate Kemfert

The art and culture foundation Opelvillen Rüsselsheim was established in 2001 by the city of Rüsselsheim and, since 2004, has been devising and hosting exhibitions on trends and developments in photography. Vanhöfen’s photography project will be the first site-specific commissioned work.

Stiftung Opelvillen
Ludwig-Dörfler-Allee 9, D-65428 Ruesselsheim
Opening hours: Thursday 10 am – 9 pm,
Wednesday/Friday – Sunday 10 am – 6 pm
www.opelvillen.de