Verschwinden (ARCHIV)
Photographs by Laurenz Berges
11 July – 2 August 2026
Opening: Friday, 10 July 2026
6 pm
Free admission
The Düsseldorf School of Photography remains one of the most influential artistic movements in photography to this day. Its representative, Laurenz Berges, was one of the last master students taught by Bernd Becher at the Academy of Fine Arts. The asphalt Festival 2026 is being hosted for the first time at KIT – Kunst im Tunnel, where it will present the internationally renowned photographic artist’s first solo exhibition in Düsseldorf, featuring works from the past 25 years alongside current, previously unseen pieces. Laurenz Berges documents places that have been abandoned. In doing so, he uses only the available light and consistently refrains from staging his scenes. His images are silent testimonies to social and political upheavals, such as the structural change in North Rhine-Westphalia. Once-vibrant towns and communities are losing part of their population; private homes are being abandoned without a new generation moving in. People are almost never to be seen in Laurenz Berges’ photographs, yet he uncovers the traces they left behind over the years before their disappearance. Within the distinctive architecture of the KIT, a visual archive unfolds, making visible the quiet echoes of lived experience.
Laurenz Berges (born 1966 in Cloppenburg) studied at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, and in 1988/89 worked as an assistant to Evelyn Hofer, one of the most important photographers of the post-war period, in New York. His works are exhibited in museums worldwide and form part of major collections. Laurenz Berges lives and works in Düsseldorf.ges lebt und arbeitet in Düsseldorf.