Kudzu – Sabine Bungert und Stefan Dolfen, Stadthaus Ulm, 2022

2022

KUDZU

Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen

Stadthaus Ulm
25.06.2022 – 18.09.2022
Opening: Friday, June 24, 2022, 7 p.m.

Curator: Karla Nieraad
In cooperation with Städtische Galerie Iserlohn

„The vine that ate the south“ ist the common description for the highly invasive plant which grows everywhere in the American South. Originally the plant came from Asia. 1876 Kudzu was imported first time into the USA at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. During the great depression farm workers were paid to plant Kudzu, it was seen as a good way to combat soil erosion. However Kudzu can grow 30 centimetre a day and becomes 30 metre long and nowadays it represents a huge problem for the southern states. Where Kudzu grows it eliminates all other vegetation, the plant easily overtakes complete woods.

It looks amazing, overgrown trees look like mysterious creatures and the forests seem to be enchanted. But the vine kills the trees and damages property. Kudzu has altered the landscape severely and affected the biodiversitiy of the Southern States.

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2022

Paradise Lost

Sabine Bungert

Sprengel Museum Hannover
VONOVIA AWARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHY – Home No. 5

The town of Paradise was almost completely destroyed in 2018 by one of the worst fires in California history, the Camp Fire. 85 people died and 18793 buildings burned to the ground. Nearly all residents lost their homes.

Inspired by aerial photographs and various eyewitness accounts, I have recreated the environment as a model and I photographed it again as an „aerial view“. Images constructed in this way consciously plays with visual habits, photographed paper becomes the supposed document of a catastrophe.

Kudzu – Sabine Bungert und Stefan Dolfen, Publication, 2021

2021

KUDZU

Sabine Bungert und Stefan Dolfen

Our book Kudzu is published by The Velvet Cell.
With a text by Robert Uhde and a layout by Ricardo Nunes.
Kudzu – Sabine Bungert und Stefan Dolfen, article FAZ

2021

KUDZU

Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
16.12.2021

Text: Freddy Langer

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2021

Paradise Lost

Sabine Bungert

Vonovia Award für Fotografie 2021
Shortlist

The town of Paradise was almost completely destroyed in 2018 by one of the worst fires in California history, the Camp Fire. 85 people died and 18793 buildings burned to the ground. Nearly all residents lost their homes.

Inspired by aerial photographs and various eyewitness accounts, I have recreated the environment of the people – houses burned to the ground, streets burst by the fire, burned forests and the shore of Concow Reservoir where people saved themselves – as a model and I photographed it again as an „aerial view“. Images constructed in this way consciously plays with visual habits, photographed paper becomes the supposed document of a catastrophe.

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2021

The room is the third teacher

Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen
Georg Koppmann Preis für Hamburger Stadtfotografie

The musty locker room, the auditorium with huge doors, the gym with medicine balls and blue rubber mats, the freshly polished linoleum in the school hallways, scratched tabletops, chewing gum under wooden chairs and graffiti in the washrooms. Those who think of their school days recall images of spaces, surfaces, objects, and smells. School rooms are living spaces and students spend a long time in them. These years are very important for the socialization of children and teenagers.

As part of the Georg Koppmann Preis für Hamburger Stadtfotografie we photographed five Hamburger schools. We were focused on the design of surfaces and materials, on the interaction of colors and shapes, the use and wear of objects as well as on the design of space and, above all, the redesign of space that´s made of the use over the years.

Our project „The room is the third teacher“ has now been published in a brochure by the Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg. With texts by Dr. Dorothee Stapelfeldt, Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Czech and Robert Uhde.

An exhibition together with the other award winners will be shown in Hamburg in 2023.

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2021

The room is the third teacher

Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen
Georg Koppmann Preis für Hamburger Stadtfotografie

Photonews
Nr. 11/21

Text: Rolf Sachsse

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Kudzu – Sabine Bungert und Stefan Dolfen, 11. Wiesbadener Fototage, 2021

2019

KUDZU

Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen

11. Wiesbadener Fototage
Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award 2019, shortlist
Felix Schoeller Award, shortlist

„The vine that ate the south“ ist the common description for the highly invasive plant which grows everywhere in the American South. Originally the plant came from Asia. 1876 Kudzu was imported first time into the USA at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. During the great depression farm workers were paid to plant Kudzu, it was seen as a good way to combat soil erosion. However Kudzu can grow 30 centimetre a day and becomes 30 metre long and nowadays it represents a huge problem for the southern states. Where Kudzu grows it eliminates all other vegetation, the plant easily overtakes complete woods.

It looks amazing, overgrown trees look like mysterious creatures and the forests seem to be enchanted. But the vine kills the trees and damages property. Kudzu has altered the landscape severely and affected the biodiversitiy of the Southern States.

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2018

Diaolou – The watchtowers of Kaiping

and other works
Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen

Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen
24. May – 1. September 2018

Hundreds of watchtowers, the Diaolou, can be found in the Chinese province of Guangdong. Our documentation of the Kaiping Diaolou continues the central aspect of our previous work. Here, the signs of migration become visible in architecture once again. Today, the Kaiping Diaolou are seen as contemporary witnesses of the emigration history of overseas Chinese from Kaiping. Due to their unique architecture, some of the Kaiping Diaolou were given the status of World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2007.

Today, the Diaolou are very different from traditional Chinese residential housing. Apart from gothic, baroque and rococo elements, the influence of ancient Greek, Roman and Islamic architectural style can be identified. A unique combination of Chinese and western architecture was formed. The Kaiping Diaolou display the earliest adaptation of western influences in rural areas of China.

The project „Diaolou“ was supported by Stiftung Kulturwerk der VG Bild-Kunst.

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2017

Chikan

Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen

10. Wiesbadener Fototage
26. August – 10. September 2017

These photographs were taken shortly after dark in the streets of Chikan, a small city in the south of China. It is the moment of transition. Some salesmen are shortly before finishing their business, some shops are already closed. Salesmen wait for last customers, some sit in front of the TV, others tidy and clean the shop. Hardly no one is on the road. The darkness comes suddenly and quickly. A few rats scurry through the narrow streets, otherwise you can hardly hear anything else. It´s a little town, not as in the metropolises, there aren´t any street lights. It is a deep dark.

The darkness in the pictures takes up much space. Some windows, shops, garages or small street scenes are illuminated, but they look like a little bit lost. Chikan Old Town is located in the province of Guangdong and had an important role as trading center at the beginning of the 20th century. This moved 16 km the Tanjiang River downstream and is called Kaiping City nowadays. The commercial buildings of Chikan had been built by overseas Chinese and show some western elements of architecture. But former splendor days are gone, the growth of the province of Guangdong didn´t reach Chikan.

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2016

Arrival Cities

Hongkong & Istanbul
Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen

Städtische Galerie Iserlohn
26. August – 9. October 2016

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2016

Arrival Cities

Hongkong & Istanbul
Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen

Forum Kunst & Architektur
Organiser: BDA Bund Deutscher Architekten
17. April bis 13. May 2016

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2015

Natural World
A day on the beach

Kolga Tbilisi Photo 2015
Kolga Award
Tiflis, Georgien

The photo project Natural World (Conceptual photo project category) and the photo A day on the beach (One shot category) were chosen by the KOLGA AWARD international jury members among the best photos of the year 2015. The photos were exhibited at KOLGA AWARD exhibition in Tbilisi, Georgia and they are printed in the annual photo catalogue.

A day on the beach
Cullercoats is an urban area of northeast England not far away from Newcastle upon Tyne. The Beach Cullercoats Bay is a popular destination for day visitors. It´s a region wich is concerned by high unemployment for a long time. Newcastle had been an industrial region but after the comedown of the coal and ship industry this area was dominated by poorness. I took this picture of a group of young children and their advisors in summer while the school holidays. They spent a day on the beach.

Natural World
In this project I want to turn the spotlight on our dealings with nature, notably, wild animals. Being shaped by culture and civilisation we tend draw a romantic image of those „wild creatures“ of nature and projects unfulfilled experiences wishes onto the animal. The animals‘ surrounding is the central aspect of this project.

I am searching for indications and manifestations in human and animal behaviour to capture the points of intersection between civilisation and wilderness. I take pictures of encounters in the wild and combine these with photos taken in modern zoological gardens and dioramas in natural history museums, which try to create an illusion of nature. This combination reveals a complex relation between man, nature and animal.

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2015

Corinna und Anna

Photonews
Nr. 5/15

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2014/2015

Projektzeit

Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen
28. November 2014 – 21. February 2015
Opening: 28.11.2014, 7:00 pm.

The Exhibition Projektzeit displays new projects from photographers of the Pixelprojekt Ruhrgebiet and is part of: bild.sprachen – Plattform für Fotografie und Fotoprojekte „Surprise me“. Stefan Dolfen and I show pictures of the work „The Mythological City – Signs & Structures“.

The Mythological City – Signs & Structures
Sabine Bungert & Stefan Dolfen

Los Angeles is one of the most heterogeneous cities of the world and marked by an extreme urban sprawl. More than 12 million people live in the metropolitan region of Los Angeles. There is a large variety of ethnic groups and styles of life. Los Angeles is a city which does not look like a coherent unit, there is no obvious centre. An extensive road network traverses the metropolis passing countless suburbs. The city changes all the time. The popoulation of White and African Americans decreases, while the Asian and Hispanic popolution is growing.
Successful migrants move to wealthy districts, while a lot of new migrants settle in poorer areas of the city. This anti-urban character is a very characteristic feature of Los Angeles – the multifaceted population of this city is joined together in a giant village.

There are many signs and structures in Los Angeles, which exhibit how people feel and live in this city. Some are helpful for orientation or refer to the infrastructure, like streets, crossings and traffic signs. Others require more of an associative point of view, like murals, film posters or advertising. Signs are a form of communication and offer a lot of information. Whether the murals in Sun Valley, a Clown advertisement for a liquer shop or the huge Hollywood film posters, all of them are reports of the life, hope and failure in this city. These signs and structures visualise the aura of City of Los Angeles.

An exhibition catalogue has been published.

D-Day, 6. Juni 2009

2014

FotoAffairs

Depot Dortmund
The exhibition is organised by Freelens

D-Day
Once a year one can behold a scenario at the shores and beaches of Normandy, which seems most bizarre. It‘s D-Day – and militarists from various countries reenact the invasion of Normandy by the Allied Forces. Men, completely dressed in WWII uniforms and seemingly armed to the teeth, are crawling and crouchinig through the scenery once known as Omaha or Utah Beach. Cutting their way through craters and past bunker near Pointe du Hoc but also past vantage points, promenaders and tourists. Jeeps, Motorcycles and Tanks from the past are being presented, corniches and roads are frequented by patrols. Some Englishmen reenact the taking of a German emplacement by the US Ranger Batallion near Pointe du Hoc, just a few mile away from Omaha Beach. Frenchmen acting as US soldiers are freeing villages along the coast line. Dutchmen wearing fashion from the 40ies are taking a walk through history. A briefing with wounded (soldiers) and corpsmen is staged.

An exhibition catalogue has been published.

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2013

Natural World

LWL-Museum für Naturkunde
Münster

The way we treat nature and wild animals in particular is the focus of Sabine Bungerts exhibition „Natural World“. Being shaped by culture and civilisation we tend to draw a romantic image of those creatures of nature. They represent everything we have been deprived of by our way of life and thus become an object of our desire. Sabine Bungert is interested in the consequences of this relationship, in the signs in which behaviours of man and animal manifest themselves and in the points of intersection between wild life and civilisation. The complex relation between them is also being expressed by the staging of the subject animal. Sabine Bungert combines this form of staging – the deliberate setup of exhibition rooms which try to mimic a natural environment in museums or zoos – with images of nature predominantly from North America where still huge wild life resorts can be found

Münster, 2013

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2012

Natural World

Fotogalerie Heeder
Krefeld

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2012

Natural World

Produzentengalerie plan.d.
Düsseldorf
Exhibition with Sebastian Kalitzki

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Permanent exhibition

Phenomena

Ruhr Museum
Essen

The exhibition „Phenomena“ displays the pictures of some photographers in various aspects. My pictures are shown in the category structural change. Coincident to the exhibition a book has been published: „Ruhr Museum, Natur. Kultur. Geschichte.“

The Ruhrgebiet has been undergoing an enormous process of transformation over the last half century. Once Europe’s largest coal und steel region, it is now on the way to becoming a service society known as the Ruhr metropolitan area. Working conditions, family structures and education have radically changed, along with leisure and cultural habits. For many years structural change was considered a threat because it produced high unemployment and social decline. But now that many of the worst crises have been overcome, this transformation is increasingly being regarded as a unique opportunity. The International Building Exhibition Emscher Park and the award of the title of European Capital of Culture (RUHR.2010) have provided the region with new momentum and visible recognition.

Source: Ruhr Museum

Landschaftspark Nord, Duisburg Meiderich, Taucher im stillgelegten Stahlwerk Thyssen
Hochofen 8, während des Abstichs läuft das Eisen in die Torpedopfanne
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2011

Deep in the West

Pixelprojekt Ruhrgebiet
Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen

The Pixelprojekt Ruhrgebiet collects photography related to aspects of the Ruhr area. A jury choses a new series of photographies every year. These photos will be shown online and at an exhibition. My series „Deep in the West“ was elected in 2011. It focuses on the architectural design of the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Deep in the West
The architecture of the university buildings in Bochum triggers controversial discussion until this day. It is a typical remnant of the 60ies – concrete is the predominant material throughout the entire facility. „Form follows function“ was the basic principle for its drafts. Being the first newly founded university in the Federal Republic of Germany the campus was modelled after American campus layouts of that time. It is a functional architecture, answering the desire for modernism. While rebuilding the country one was looking for new forms of expression, trying to avoid anything that might relate to the country‘s recent history. Thus, a „University City“ had been built with more than 150 courses of study, a campus spanning more than three square kilometres, dorm rooms, a shopping centre, cinemas and a park for more than 30,000 students. A massive project of this time by architect Helmut Hentrich who drafted a „harbour in the ocean of science“. Today, the university‘s reputation as a „concrete wasteland“ has almost reach cult status as described by a student in his blog: „[…] for me, it is actually a cultural experience to lose my bearings in the vastness of those underground parking decks below the university every morning.“

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2010

Beauty and the Bike

Darlington Media Group
England

Beauty and the Bike is a film- and photo project about bicycling in europe. More than about one year I took pictures of girls and young women in England and Germany. This project was founded by Richard Grassik and Beatrix Wuppermann. The portraits are published in a book and exhibited in Darlington along with the portraits of the English photographer Phil Dixon.

Beauty and the Bike
Street cred on a bike? For most Darlington teenagers, the bike is something to leave behind with your childhood. But in a lot of European towns and cities, the bike is a mark of cool, a fashion statement that also gives young people independence from their parents and public transport. DMG’s Beauty and the Bike invited teenage girls from Darlington to join their counterparts in a cycle-friendly city, Bremen in Germany, to explore their own ideas of street fashion – and whether the bike can play a part. A number of the group travelled to Bremen over Easter 2009 to meet their German co-participants, and a return visit to Darlington took place that summer.

After a year of documenting, the Media group released a 55 minute film on DVD and a two-language book in December 2009, with the launch in Darlington featuring an exhibition of the photographs of Phil Dixon and Sabine Bungert. Since then, the film has been screened across four continents, and continues to inspire cycling advocates from Wellington, New Zealand to Prague to California.

Source: Darlington Media Group

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2008

Corinna and Anna

Darlington Media Group
England

Since 1994 I am running a long-term photo project about a mother and her daughter. Every year I take a portrait of Corinna and her daughter Anna in a strictly documentary style in front of a plain white background. This is done to detach them from their social surroundings and focus entirely on mother and daughter, providing an undisturbed and straight view for the beholder.
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