Artists

Pauline Hafsia M’barek

Press release

Every two years, as part of the program Artist Meets Archive that is organized by the International Photoscene Cologne, artists are invited to explore various photographic archives and collections in Cologne. Artist Pauline Hafsia M’barek (b. 1979, based in Brussels and Cologne) has carefully examined the large photography collection at the Museum Ludwig. Her latest project is based on the collection of photo historian Erich Stenger and the Agfa advertising archive, which the museum acquired in 2005. 

Pauline Hafsia M'barek is particularly interested in the chemical-physical nature of the photographic image and its production process. Glass, silver, copper, cotton, gelatine and salt, among others, form the unstable, complex image layers of analog photographs. Over time, their delicate surfaces reveal traces of the recording process and its material conditions in the form of fading, stains or silvering. Pauline Hafsia M'barek's focus is therefore on the vulnerability of photographic archives and the questions of their exhibitability, as they must be shielded from external influences in order to preserve them permanently. 

Curator: Barbara Engelbach