07.05.2021
Nationalgalerie
What is a picture of myself supposed to accomplish? How do I see myself? How do I want to present myself to others? In the project Taking (and Making) a Picture of Yourself, young adults from JOBLINGE (a youth employment intitative) in Berlin-Spandau are showing a series of creative posters addressing these and other questions. Beginning on 10 May 2021, the posters will be displayed at the Yorckstraße S-Bahn underpass heading towards Kreuzberg (Yorckstraße S-Bahn station) for two weeks as a presentation in urban space while Hamburger Bahnhof is closed.
Supported by photographer Ana Baumgart and art educator Karen Winzer, project participants discussed works by Berlin photographer Michael Schmidt, whose oeuvre the Nationalgalerie presented last year in a large exhibition, Michael Schmidt – Retrospective: Photographs 1965–2014, at Hamburger Bahnhof ‒ Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin.
Michael Schmidt photographed people in the everyday surroundings of their neighbourhoods, at work, or in their homes. His perspective and the way he realised individual projects changed constantly.
The Joblinge are young people participating in the JOBLINGE Foundation’s same-named programme, which offers assistance with career choices and applications for training and apprenticeships. In the process the young people are also confronted with questions of self-representation.
The works shown in Taking (and Making) a Picture of Yourself were created by Meryem Eymur, Jendrik Galonska, Mohammad Alhamoud, Muhammad Nor Khasman and Thierno Nouhou Cherif.
The project Taking (and Making) a Picture of Yourself is part of the collaboration Kiez Meets Museum between the Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Stiftung Berliner Leben – a foundation of the Gewobag housing association. Kiez Meets Museum aims to ensure that young people from economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Berlin have more access to the city’s cultural life.