2005–2009
Hildegard Ohde
Room installation: A woman's face as mirror of contemporary events. Consisting of two films of 7 min each, a 12-panel screen print, and eight photos
Hildegard Ohde, born 1914 in Berlin.
Text: Julie August, Gallerist, 18m Gallery
Hildegard Ohde lived in Schöneberg for 50 years and never moved again after settling into the apartment at Lindauerstraße 7 following her husband's death in 1958. I have lived in the same building since 1988 and got to know my neighbor through many conversations. Fascinated by this woman's life story, the openness and vitality of this 92-year-old lady, I undertook the attempt to approach her through my artistic means — with three different forms of expression: two films, screen prints, and photographs.
Film 1 / Gesichtsspuren (Facial Traces) 2005, 7 Min.
Film 2 / H.Ohde Interview 2006, 7 Min.
First came the film, whose theme is making the passage of time visible in the changing facial features of a 92-year-old woman. The concepts of aging and beauty can be experienced anew through different forms of expression. The projection aims to focus and sensitize the viewer's perception to a person's face over the course of a lifetime.
The multi-part screen print work is based on a small black-and-white photo that Mrs. Ohde had taken with her children at a Berlin photo studio in 1943. The same photo was also used in the film — the screen print takes the moving images of the film and translates them into a static, painterly composition of a two-dimensional wall work.
Mrs. Ohde has since passed away at the age of 93.
