Berlin West

BERLIN WEST illustrates the subculture of the eighties in West-Berlin, so exorbitant and glamorous at first, however becoming increasingly overshadowed by illness and death.

Life took place mostly at night, excesses were normality, anything turned into a psychological dress party, overly dramatised. Constant intoxicated states of mind liberated creative forces that essentially determined the potential of this time. The music scene was vital, Nick Cave was in town, the band Einstürzende Neubauten were the heroes of the day, all kinds of artistic expressions were entangled, one big organism simultaneously loosing control.The free spirit of this city without restraint supplied the fertile ground for life as an experiment under the spell of No Future.

And there was the Berlin Wall that cut right through the center of the city, the eastern part was close and yet so far away. The wall even favored such a way of living by providing a certain kind of isolation, hardly noticed though, the night society only revolved around themselves. Symptomatically the scene dissolved when the wall came down and the German reunification took over.

Eva Maria Ocherbauer lived to the core within this knit community, therefore predestined to give an authentic interpretation. Her photographs mirror the apparitional conditions, the pervasive drifting by overriding technical standards, maxing out the medium in the same way as experiencing life on the edge.