Exhibition: MONOTON MONOCHROM - Photography

The legacy of the GDR is back in vogue. But to what extent is that really the case? Photographer Martin Maleschka has been exploring this question for more than 20 years in his photographic documentation of the GDR’s architectural heritage.

For the 2026 Kosmos Festival, he has returned to a familiar venue. In 2019, he presented his publication “DDR. Architecture-Related Art” at the Waschsalon in Chemnitz; this time, he’s letting his images speak for themselves. Pictures are worth a thousand words. The exhibition frames the “Exposed Concrete in the Laundromat” format, a four-part lecture series culminating in a panel discussion that addresses the overarching theme of “Gray Energy.”

In a series of deliberately monochromatic photographs, functionally diverse architectural typologies of postwar East German modernism are juxtaposed. A 40-year period of growth was followed after 1990 by a seemingly continuous decline in all areas—especially in the workforce—that continues to this day. As a result, the focus is on industrial wastelands and residential buildings. But cultural, recreational, and educational facilities also tell stories of depopulation, decay, and vacancy.

Is loss and decay sexy, or is it rather the potential seen within it?