01 — movements

was bleibt.

Kolmanskop, Namibia · 2022 · five rooms

Corridor with wooden floorboards, paint flaking from walls and door frames, doorways to the left and right; the exposures overlap.

room 01 / 05

A silent reminder that change often does not lie in the future, but has long since begun.

Kolmanskop, Namibia · 2022 · 5 worksFormat: 85 × 60 cmFineArt print on Photolux Velvet FineArt PaperBox frame with museum glass and passe-partoutEdition: 12 + 2

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What a find! At the beginning of the 20th century, diamonds were discovered in the Namib Desert – so large that they could be picked up off the ground. Kolmanskop came into being: a town in the middle of the sand, with a telephone, a tram, an ice cellar. Built on hope and greed – but the wealth was fleeting. The shallow deposits were quickly exhausted. The people left; what remained were products by Miele and Dr. Oetker – and the stately houses that have been sinking into the sand for over 100 years.

Kolmanskop shows how change begins: at first inconspicuous, then rapid and irreversible. The place stands for a world that staged a way of life in complete ignorance of local conditions – one that cannot last. Today the dunes eat their way into the colonial architecture, and the silence tells of the end. Kolmanskop is a reminder that change often does not lie in the future, but has long since begun.