03 Feb 2010

Stefan Hunstein 'Schon war's!' (It was nice!)

"Schön war’s!" (It was nice!) is the title of the recent photographic-series (from 2007-2009) by Stefan Hunstein. A book on the series has been published in German and English in december 2009 by the prestigious art publisher Hatje Cantz Verlag. The work has been exhibited at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Allgemeiner Konsumverein (Braunschweig). On february 4, 2010, the series of more then 100 photographies and the book will be presented at the Haus der Kunst (Munich). After a welcoming speech by the director of the museum, Chris Dercon, Petra Giloy-Hirtz, author and publisher of the book, will give an introduction to Hunsteins work. The next stop of the installation will be at Villa Merkel (Esslingen, March 28–June 6, 2010).

Stefan Hunstein repeatedly works with photographic source material, which in his eyes is testimony to our collective memory. In the past several years, he has been exploring recent German history with the aid of images dating from the thirties to the sixties.
In his work, “Schön war’s!” (It was nice!) Hunstein employed postcard motifs from the young Federal Republic of Germany from the fifties and sixties, manipulating the images and adding color to some of them. He was particularly interested in the question of the ideals and desires of a society in a phase of reconstruction. And since picture postcards reveal much about the ideals and self-perception of a society, all told the works create an impressive “panorama of longing” in a society shaken by war.

STEFAN HUNSTEIN
Stefan Hunstein (*1957 in Kassel) lives and works in Munich. Recipient of the 1991 Deutscher Fotopreis (German Photography Prize). Stefan Hunstein has presented regular exhibitions of his works since the 1980s. His exhibition venues have included Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich in 1995 and the Haus der Kunst in 2002. In 2008 he created rather a stir with an installation entitled “Gegenwart...!” (Present....!) at the Freising Diocesan Museum. Since January 2009 he has been represented with two works at the exhibition “Man Son 1969. The Horror of the Situation” at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

PUBLICATION
Stefan Hunstein "Schon war’s!“ Aus den fruhen Jahren der Republik
("It was nice!": From the Early Years of the Federal Republic)
Edited by Petra Giloy-Hirtz, texts by Petra Giloy-Hirtz
Published by Hatje Cantz Verlag December 2009
German, English
152 pp., 115 color ills., hardcover
ISBN 978-3-7757-2543-9

GALLERY
Galerie Andreas Binder/ www.andreasbinder.de
 
PRESS CONTACT
Goldmann Public Relations e.K./ Friederike Schroeder/ Phone: +49 89 211 164 – 22/ E-mail: fschroeder@goldmannpr.de


The event is kindly supported by Adam Opel GmbH