Past exhibition

01.02.2019–30.06.2019

Top Secret - Relics of the Cold War

Photographs by Martin Roemers

What remains of the Cold War? For the Dutch photographer Martin Roemers it is primarily structural remnants of the East-West conflict in Europe. In these images, Roemers feels „the echo of patriotism, paranoia and aggression“.

Roemers travels through Europe with his camera for more than ten years. The photo series „Top secret - Traces of the Cold War“ takes the observer on a tour of deserted army bases, bunker complexes, scrapyards and missile storage sites. His images arouse sentiments between menace and sadness.

In the exhibition visitors encounter former bunkers, life-size pictures of abandoned tunnels and corridors open up ways into a bygone world. Cold neon lights and a twisting architecture are reminiscent of the raw atmosphere of the military buildings of the time. Roemer's "Cold War Traces" are brought back to life.

Martin Roemers, born in 1962 in is a Dutch artist and photographer. He studies at the AKI Academy of Visual Arts in Enschede, the Netherlands. His large oeuvre is internationally renowned and his work is exhibited worldwide. Several of his projects revolve around the consequences of armed conflict and war. Roemers is a two-time winner of the World Press Photo Awards and the Street Photography Awards. He lives and works in the Dutch city of Delft.

Insights
Visitors in the exhibition
Deutschland, Großenhain. Sowjetischer Luftwaffenstützpunkt; 1998
Ehemaliges sowjetisches Militärhospital in Jüterborg, 2007.
Martin Roemers in the exhibition
Deutschland, Altengrabow. Panzer auf einem ehemaligen Sowjetischen Truppenübungsplatz in Sachsen-Anhalt; 2004
Exhibition Poster