For the fourth time, the Goethe-Institut Bulgaria and the Sofia City Art Gallery are spotlighting contemporary German photography with the work of Ulrich Wüst, following exhibitions featuring Sibylle Bergemann (2022), Barbara Klemm (2023), and Helga Paris (2024). The exhibition features over 120 photographs, primarily black-and-white archival pigment prints. Wüst’s professional experience as an urban planner and photo editor has shaped his distinctive photographic approach—analytical, precise, and rigorously composed—with his interest focused not so much on historical ruins or traces of war as on the absurdities and contradictions arising from urban planning —the demolition of existing architecture, indiscriminate construction, and the critical transformation of the urban environment. Through his neutral, mostly black-and-white images, he constructs a distinctive visual critique of architecture that lacks a direct ideological position.

Ulrich Wüst’s oeuvre first attracted attention in the 1980s, above all on account of his many Cityscapes, taken in several towns around the GDR. These images show scarring from the Second World War and an unchecked decay of historical built fabric. At the centre of his photographic interest, however, were those absurdities in urban situations that derive as much from a lack of attention or cluelessness as from wanton destruction or uncontrolled development. With his camera, Wüst evolved his own, very visual way of critiquing architecture. It has lost none of its poignancy today, especially as his argument is never ideological but borne along by a sense of phenomena that offers as much scope for subtle humour as for irony.

A wider international audience discovered Ulrich Wüst’s photogra-phy when he was invited to exhibit at documenta 14 in Kassel in 2017. Ulrich Wüst’s photographic oeuvre, which explores Eastern Germany in the broader sense, is not confined to the sunken GDR. It might be described as a pictorial archaeology of our present day. These pictures reveal the finds from his “excavations” and are at the same time tools of their conservation. Wüst has an infallible feel for the graphic quality of everyday situations, objects and materials, but also for the deeper layers of significance associated with found images. Examples are the enlarged details from East German press products that demonstrate a manipulative use of photography.

Ulrich Wüst’s photography can be contemplated from different perspectives. While the observations captured here are essentially rooted in Germany’s division and its mending, at the same time they always relate to universal phenomena of social change and its material manifestations. The seemingly terse images, extremely precise in their composition, are the fruits of lengthy visual wanderings through present sites of recent history.

During the exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to purchase the accompanying catalogue, published by Spector Books.

• Guided tour with Matthias Flüge, curator: Saturday, September 12, 4:00 p.m.

Ulrich Wüst Biography

• 1949 born in Magdeburg
• 1967 –1972 studied at the University of Architecture and Construction in Weimar, graduated in urban planning
• 1972 moved to East Berlin
• 1972–1983 work as an urban planner and picture editor
• since 1984 freelance photographer in Berlin and Schönhof / Mecklenburg
• 2000 Helen Abbott Prize
• 2021 Art Prize of the State of Saxony-Anhalt

Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst is an exhibition by the ifa — Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V., Stuttgart, presented at the Sofia City Art Gallery in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Bulgaria.

Curated by Matthias Flüggetography

Concept and selection – Matthias Flügge, Alexander Lisewski in collaboration with Ulrich Wüst

Curator Liaison – Gergana Mihova

Logistic Partner – Cargo Planet

Coordinator ifa — Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. – Alexander Lisewski

Coordinator Goethe-Institut Bulgaria – Elizabeta Zaykova

Curator Sofia City Art Gallery – Stanislava Nikolova

Translation, tours Jenny Decheva

Realisation, organisation, technical realisation – Alexander Lisewski