"Kammer"

Sabine Höpfner

With the support: Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki

Duration: October 1, 2021-February 20, 2022 -EXTENDED UNTIL APRIL 29, 2022

Venue: MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-CostakisCollection

In the framework of the Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale 2021

After months of lockdown forced onto museums because of the pandemic, the joint presentation by Sabine Höpfner and Stefan Canham—visual artists and partners—celebrates the joy of walking through exhibition spaces and looking at works of art. Specifically, they look at the Costakis collection, presenting two series of photographs they took while visiting Moni Lazariston in 2018 and 2019.

In her series Kammer, Sabine Höpfner turns the Museum of Modern Art inside out, focusing on the architecture:

“My eyes fell upon small peculiarities in the interior design, little steps and protrusions, arches, peepholes, three-dimensional structures that I wouldn’t expect in an exhibition space. I started to take photographs of these specific details. I turned light hitting spatial features and casting shadows into rather abstract compositions. Often, I do not leave a photograph as it is. I look at it regarding its ‘negative’ qualities by turning it up side down or inverting the tonal values. I thus alter the visual hierarchy. Areas exposed to light fade into the background and shadows begin to glow. The whole dynamic changes and leaves you wondering where the ‘light’ is coming from.”

Sabine Höpfner (DE)

Sabine Höpfner (*1968) is a visual artist based in Hamburg, Germany.

After being trained as a photographer she studied Visual Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg choosing both photography and film as her medium.

Her experimental short films have been screened at various film festivals such as European Media Art Festival Osnabrück, Short Film Festival Hamburg and Go Short in Nijmegen. Her short films “Spaziergang/The Walk“ (1993) and “NachtSchatten/NightShade“ (2007) both received an honorable mention. Her experimental short film “Hybrid and Superimposition“ (1997/98) is part of the Photofilm program curated by Gusztáv Hámos and Katja Pratschke and has been screened internationally since.

Since 2010 she has worked primarily in the field of photography, focusing on experimental picture editing. Her work was shown at art spaces in Germany and abroad, including “Kunstverein Kehdingen“ (2009); “Cave“ (Detroit, 2011); Goethe-Institute Washington (2012). In 2003, Sabine Höpfner was artist-in-residence at Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus in Eckernförde, Germany, together with Stefan Canham. She was artist-in-residence at SÍM Reykjavík, Iceland, in 2008, 2010, 2014, and 2020, where a large part of her work originated.

Sabine is also singer, bassist and songwriter of the three-piece post-punk band “Tvashtar”.