We cordially invite you to our upcoming exhibition. The artist Robert Schlotter will be present at the vernissage on 17 September at 19:00!

Robert Schlotter's long-term project Beyond Cold War (2010 - 2014) is based on the photographic observation of the Cold War confrontation lines in Europe - border areas where NATO and the Warsaw Pact faced each other directly until 1989. Both the attentive, slow (photographic) perception (wandering) and the questioning of one's own perception in images are central elements of his work. Schlotter's main focus is on the landscape of the border regions, which has become somewhat charged due to its political and strategic relevance. Partially declared as restricted areas and already provided with access restrictions in the hinterland, they were places of mutual observation, prohibition, smuggling and exchange of agents, escape and killing. Influenced by the definition of the systems against each other, demarcation and through targeted deception, the question of the "world" behind the border arose for the populations on both sides. On a journey from Norway to Turkey, Robert Schlotter embarks less on a search for traces than on an observation of the landscape as a setting and stage for political decisions and European history, which today seems more present than ever.

This independent photographic work by the Thuringian photographer was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Art Foundation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt. A publication was released in 2015 by MDV Verlag Halle (Saale). The Fotoforum Dresden is showing this work comprehensively in Dresden for the first time.

Robert Schlotter

was born in Jena in 1981. He studied photography and media at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences under Roman Bezjak and Katharina Bosse. As a freelance photographer, he works for institutions and companies in the fields of art and architecture. In his freelance photographic work, Robert Schotter focusses on transformation processes in architecture and landscape in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the relationship between people and the environment. As publications he realised the long-term projects Halle-Silberhöhe and Beyond Cold War, which was supported by the DAAD and the Art Foundation of Saxony-Anhalt. Robert Schotter is currently receiving a grant from the German Art Fund Foundation for his independent photographic work. Robert Schlotter lives and works in Albersdorf near Jena.