FRANK GAUDLITZ
CASA MARE

The exhibition is the result of Frank Gaudlitz’s journeys between 2006 and 2008 in the Dobruja,Transylvania and Maramure? regions in Romania, Swabian Turkey in Hungary, Vojvodina in Serbia and the Republic of Moldova, countries that have always been inhabited by different ethnic groups. The photographer has intentionally chosen his models among people of different ethnic groups, religion, age and social environment, both in the villages and in urban areas.

Casa Mare which in Romanian means both "the nice living room" and “the great space”  presents  people in their home environment: to Gaudlitz, who makes people wear their best dresses, doors are opened  to people’s living room,  the room usually kept  only for certain occasions and official ceremonies. Gaudlitz does not use artificial light and the subjects, just as it was done once, motionlessly pose waiting for the shutter to click. The background is a corner of the room that is decorated according to the clothing worn by the subjects. The photographer uses a medium format analog camera and does not digitally processes the images

Casa Mare also presents indoor spaces which are empty, without the human presence. These photographs offer a view into the daily life of these people, their personal aesthetic in furnishing their home, their culture of remembrance, their religiosity.
Casa Mare does not only represent the drawing room, but also a wide geo-cultural space that tolerates diversity. It becomes  therefore a great creative stimulus for Europe

Casa Mare has two venues: at Castello D’Albertis  mainly the portraits are on show, while at VisionQuesT galley we mainly find interiors.

The book/catalogue  Frank Gaudlitz “CASA MARE”  Ed. Hatje Cantz 2009, will be available during the exhibition.

This exhibition is a project of the Coordination for the Eastern part of Central and South Europe, at the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin

Frank Gaudlitz was born in 1958 in Vetschau, Germany. He studied photography with Arno Fischer at the Academy of Graphic Arts and Book design in Leipzig. From 1990 to 1994 he worked on a photography project dedicated to the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Germany, a project later published as Die Russen gehen (The Russians are leaving),  Basisdruck Verlag 1999. He has worked mainly in Russia and other Eastern European countries and won numerous awards for his work. He has had many solo exhibitions and has participated in many exhibitions such as Fall Wall Fall (Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin 1995) and Berlin-Moskau / Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000 (Berlin, 2005, St. Petersburg and Nishni Novgorod 2004, Krasnoyarsk 2012). His works are in numerous collections including those of Werkbundarchiv Berlin, the photographic collection of the Berlinische Galerie, and the Museum of German History (Deutsch Historical Museum). His latest book, Warten auf Europe (Waiting for Europe), Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europe 2007, presents portraits of people he met along the Danube. The portraits are collected in a traveling exhibition that is touring Europe

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