A new exhibition awaits you at the Kunsthaus from 28 April:

On the occasion of the centenary of the iconic Schindler House in Los Angeles, German-Brazilian photographer Mona Kuhn (*1969) has explored its architectural features and history.

Built in 1922 by Austrian architect Rudolph M. Schindler, the house was both a social and design experiment and an avant-garde meeting place for intellectuals and artists in the 1920s and 30s. Kuhn’s project uses historical documents, portraits and an elaborate series of photographs to illuminate the facets of the house, which is considered the cradle of modern architecture in California. A walk-through video installation allows visitors to the exhibition to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the house.

The exhibition at Kunsthaus Göttingen features three floors of visual fiction created by photographer Mona Kuhn in the Schindler House – also known as Kings Road House. For this project, she collaborated with UC Santa Barbara and was given access to Schindler’s private archives, including blueprints, letters and notes. Inspired by a letter written by architect Rudolph Schindler (1887 – 1953) to an unknown woman, perhaps a secret lover, Kuhn stages a photographic fable.

On the one hand, she links the documents and letters with photographs that explore the architectural features of the house. On the other, she supplements them with a series of solarised silver gelatin prints, a special photographic technique favoured by the Surrealists, depicting a fictional female figure. The solarisation creates erasure and chalk effects during the development process – the photographs thus make the female presence corporeal, and at the same time seem to dematerialise. Kuhn uses the images to tell a story that weaves together the imaginable love affair, the architecture of the house and the memories associated with it – an exploration of time and space.

MONA KUHN: KINGS ROAD.

Photography / Installation / Documents

28 April – 4 June 2023

Photography (left): Schindler’s chair ©Mona Kuhn, 2021