Since 2018, Eric Keller has been exploring former cultural venues – complete with traces of their past lives in the GDR. Sometimes these are derelict Gründerzeit-era inns, sometimes dilapidated large canteens or halls with stage sets haphazardly stored away. He finds them in Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin. What all these places have in common is that they were once the social hubs of their respective regions and have now largely lost this function. Their picturesque allure lies in the faded layers of renovations from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, each of which has left its own distinctive mark on the buildings.
Eric Keller photographs the interiors, capturing colour schemes, spatial arrangements, wallpaper textures and specific material qualities. These almost tactile impressions – altered and freely compiled – later find their way into his paintings. He abstracts from details, tones down the colour to the point of near-monochrome, and works with set pieces, emptiness and stillness. In recent years, this approach has resulted in a body of work comprising around 20 paintings to date, most recently supported by a grant from the Kunstfonds Foundation in Bonn. In the project space, we are exhibiting a selection from this striking series.