Habitat in Dialogue. Photographs by Anne Schönharting at the Kunstsammlung Charlottenburg

The pictures of the series Habitat, whose title refers to a living space, are interiors, portraits, still lifes, stagings of the photographer and at the same time documentation of a living world. More than ten years ago, Anne Schönharting received an initial recommendation for her project to photograph Charlottenburger:innen in their private rooms. Schönharting, whose eye is trained on the Old Masters, got involved in this very unique cosmos and the circle of portrayed people grew. The photographer developed constellations and perspectives for her complex, often film-like images. At the same time, the idea of a bygone, upper-middle-class Charlottenburg seems to shimmer through her fine pictorial compositions.

In this exhibition, Anne Schönharting's photographs now enter into a dialogue with the historic Charlottenburg Art Collection and its works from the 19th century and the Berlin Secession. From 1908 on, prosperity and the need for recognition had favored a municipal collection policy with its own acquisition commission. In Charlottenburg, which had rapidly grown into a large city, the new town hall was to be furnished with works of art and the local artists were to be supported through purchases. Furthermore, the industrialist, private collector and patron Hugo Raussendorff bequeathed his collection to the city.

Both pictorial worlds reflect the need to represent oneself in and with pictures. The permanent exhibition SammlerStücke is now crossed and activated by Anne Schönharting's contemporary photographs. Composition, lighting mood and materiality are, today as a hundred years ago, carefully placed pictorial means that open up references between works of painting and photography as we walk through the exhibition. Fur and brushwork, curiosities and preciousness, figures and coloring - the dialogue between the paintings and the photographs opens up a varied visit to the exhibition.