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NEUSUZAMMENTSETZUNG (Recomposition)
A series of 40 portraits.
2023

Neuzummansetzung is an installation that aims to “embody” an irration device allegedly used on prominent GDR dissidents during forensic photography sessions.

A few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a modified X-ray machine was found in the photography room of the Stasi prison in Gera. Shortly thereafter, it mysteriously disappeared, but a series of pictures taken at the time of its discovery show the X-ray cannon, behind a curtain, set at head height, directly behind the posing chair. These images revived memories among several contemporary witnesses from various prisons run by the Ministry for State Security of the GDR. They stressed the strangeness of the mug shot sessions: the operator’s long absences and a constant humming. A decade later, prominent dissidents were diagnosed with atypical cancers, suspected to have been caused by targeted X-rays, part of the Stasi’s “decomposition” methods. Although the official investigation could not confirm this assumption, the presence of the X-ray machine in the photography room continues to fuel speculations, blurring the line between reality and fiction.

Focusing on the viewpoint of the X-ray machine, this series of 41 portraits draws on the ability of photography to reveal the visible and on the capacity of radiography to reveal the invisible.

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