Memories in Fast Times Candida Höfer

Galería Helga de Alvear is proud to present a selection of photographs by Candida Höfer (Eberswalde, 1944) produced between the years 2000 and 2014. Under the title Memories in Fast Times, this exhibition allows the German artist to reflect on the relative speed of time and the collateral effects of this dynamic on the record of our life experience.

The influence of Bernhard and Hilla Becher is fundamental towards the way in which Höfer focuses her attention on the object over people, embodied more specifically in the protagonism of interior spaces. Similarly, through her inheritance of the Bechers’ scientifically precise methodology, she seeks to understand the true nature of the object from a neutral and objective position in views of allowing it to be itself.

Despite not being organized around strict typologies, Höfer intends to create series that systematically remit to interior spaces and more specifically to places whose function is to custody and protect history and cultural memory. Public or semi-public institutions where cultural heritage is preserved and knowledge is disseminated. Therefore, her work registers what one could define as architectures of knowledge, since knowledge is deposited and archived within; a conceptual vein linking her with her mentors.

The underlying motivation driving Bernd and Hilla Bechers’ work was the use of photographic registers and archives as tools for preserving an ever-changing landscape. Having grown up in Siegerland, the portrayal of abandoned industrial plants that were about to disappear was a way for Bernd to preserve his childhood. Likewise, for Höfer there is a duty to recover that which is at risk of becoming extinct; namely, the function of these spaces of knowledge. Taking into consideration the evolution of how we consume cultural content since the onset of the communications revolution, this is a more than pertinent reflection and a reference to the historical role of the photographic medium as a tool for the conservation of specific moments in time.

Stripped of all human presence, the architecture is imbued with a tinge of strangeness: one of an idealized object. Considering that we are discussing spaces that are open to the public—places closely related to people—their absence allows the artist to broaden the timeframe from the moment of their creation to the present day. This enables a simultaneous coexistence of different places, memories, and periods within the same architecture.

Multiple temporalities accumulate layers of shared history and individual experiences through their interaction with the cultural heritage found in these spaces. Candida Höfer is ultimately interested in protecting said heritage by means of a photographic register. This serves as a form of activism against an understanding of time tainted by the use of technologies that invite us to reset our cultural heritage on a daily basis.

The interiors of libraries, theaters, museums, public buildings, institutions, and spaces of prayer are the main protagonists of Höfer’s photographic series. This current selection includes one or more examples of each, except for the latter type. The many locations where they are found—Saint Petersburg, Paris, Rome, Basel, Lisbon, Berlin, Weimar, Madrid, and Buenos Aires—attest to the ambitious geographic span of her work, which focuses more specifically on Europe.