Photography Exhibition “Heimat – Quê Hương”

Opening: Tue 04 Dec 2012, 6.30 pm
Exhibition: 05 – 28 Dec 2012, 9 am – 6 pm
Vietnamese-German Centre

From German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD):

A large Vietnamese ex-pat community now lives in Germany, and presently constitutes the largest non-European immigrant group in Berlin. Yet what happens when – despite the better educational prospects, higher quality goods, and measure of social security that Germany may offer – a yearning persists among immigrants for the land of their ancestors?

Berlin-based photographer Nora Bibel visited Vietnam in 2009, to work on a book project sponsored by the German Foreign Office and produced by GCREP (German Conservation Restoration & Education Projects). Fascinated by the country, she returned in 2010, and spent a month getting to know a broad range of Vietnamese returnees, and taking photographs of them.

In cooperation with her subjects, she staged scenes depicting traces of homes “with a foot in two cultures,” so to speak, which thus prompted questions of universal relevance on the nature of home. Although the scenes in each image are staged and, in certain cases, artificially lit, they appear to have arisen spontaneously and by chance – as if everyone, for a brief moment, had put everyday life on hold, so as to think about the broader meaning of his or her life. Closeness to the person portrayed is paramount. “Bielefeld School” is how photographer Nora Bibel sums up this very special mix of precision, aesthetics and laconism. She also briefly interviewed her subjects about their biographies and motives for moving. And thus clearly communicates what “home” means to each one of them.

The exhibition is presented courtesy of the German Embassy in Vietnam, with the support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Vietnamese-German Centre.

Photographer Nora Bibel will be present at the exhibition opening.

Free admission.