Laurenz Berges, Holding and Shrinking
Conversation with the artist and director Thomas Thiel

Special places and changing living spaces are the starting point of Laurenz Berges' photographic works, which are always preceded by a development process lasting several years. Since the 1990s, documentary and at the same time poetic series of works have shown abandoned or deserted areas around Etzweiler, Duisburg and in eastern Germany in a special light.

Mudersbach, the place not far from Siegen and in his youth the second home of Bernd Becher, interested Laurenz Berges for a long time. All his life, Becher was in touch with the house of his grandparents. He loved the atmosphere in the small town. Following his interest in biographical stories, Berges has been photographing the half-timbered house, in which nothing was allowed to be changed, for the past four years. The project forms the starting point of the exhibition at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, which for the first time juxtaposes photographs of two Becher houses that are directly related to Hilla and Bernd Becher's origins, places of living and working in Siegen and Düsseldorf. More than a portrait is capable of, the images show the working and living conditions of the famous artist couple. They are supplemented by a selection of Becher typologies, previously unseen collages by Bernd Becher, and personal collectibles from the Becherhaus. This specific interior of the half-timbered houses in Siegerland, which became famous with the Bechers, thus exemplifies the recent past in Germany.