Bettina Lockemann. Contact Zones

Undetermined Terrain, 2009
90 color photographs

The photo series Undetermined Terrain was created during various visits by the artist to Istanbul, the ancient Ottoman capital, and to Ankara, the modern Turkish capital. Here the point of departure was the issue of the visibility of border lines between Europe and Asia as well as of the urban, social, economic, and political transformations distinguishing the past one hundred years. The photographs deeply penetrate the urban spaces and approximate both familiar and extraneous facets. At the same time, the gaze of the viewer is repeatedly obscured, hampering any possibility of a view/overview. As such, situations characterized by transition and transformation are continually present. Yet the question of what is actually happening—and where it is leading—remains open.

Contact Zone, 2008
Series of 74 photographs, b/w

This photo series came into being during the artist’s three-month stay in Japan. In these photographs Lockemann reflects on constructions of the other—and, concretely speaking, on the preconceptions about Asia (specifically Japan) prevalent in Western society—while simultaneously confuting these. Rather than zeroing in on motifs that are perceived as different from a Western perspective, her pictures of urban situations encountered in various Japanese cities instead highlight the opposite, namely, that which reflects the seemingly familiar: such as buildings and building complexes that have been designed or influenced by Western architects.

EP/2006/K., 2006–2007
Series of 28 photographs, b/w

The photographs in this series originated from spaces within the European Parliament in Brussels. In this case, Lockemann was especially interested in the bureaucratic structures of the building and of everyday parliamentary life, the work processes of which remain elusory. Despite the fact that there is much to be observed, the events in general elude interpretation. It is this impenetrability that Lockemann is probing through her work. Serving as inspiration in the process is Franz Kafka, who has underscored in his novels the inaccessibility of bureaucracy for average citizens.

Code Orange, 2003
Series of 80 photographs, b/w

The series Code Orange was photographed in 2003 in Washington, D.C. and deals with aspects of securitarianism and surveillance. Although the images reflect a documentary approach, the artist nevertheless stops short of attempting to portray an objective picture but, in fact, is engendering an atmosphere of suspicion and surveillance. Seemingly trivial scenes are charged with meaning and associated into a vague narrative. The photographs impart an ambivalence that leaves the viewer hanging as far as the import of the events is concerned.

Fringes of Utopia, 2001–2002
Series of 55 photographs, b/w

The series Fringes of Utopia: Observations on West Coast Urbanism was created between 2001 and 2002 in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Diego. The cities of the U.S. West Coast are often treated as paradigms for the urban development of the future. Yet they in actuality reflect the urban “sprawl” prototype (such as has long since been described by science fiction authors) with their neglectful treatment of natural resources like land, water, and energy, with their favoring of the car for transportation, with the disappearance of public space, and with their unresolved security issues. This work illuminates various elements of such urban development choices and embraces the vacuity and the wide open spaces, the equivalent of which are not to be found in Europe.