Katharina Jahnke: se souvenir

The exhibition ‘se souvenir’ by Katharina Jahnke at artothek - space for young art takes a reflective look at the culture of remembrance, focussing on its subjective fragility and objective evidential power. In the vibrant tourist space between souvenir shops and everyday urban culture, Jahnke presents two series of works that explore the individual and collective layers of memory.

The ‘wiegehtesdirmirgehtesgut’ series comprises around 30 drawings based on used postcards that document once intimate interpersonal connections that have since been lost. Through this graphic appropriation, a subtle dialectic of voyeuristic insight and critical questioning of the dwindling practice of handwritten holiday communication unfolds - a sensitive commentary on the digital replacement of traditional modes of communication.
The subsequent series ‘Cologne’ combines collages of historical sights and icons of tourist city depictions with motifs from traditional cultural illustrated books to create surreal new localities. These works in particular reveal a deeper understanding of Cologne's urban fabric than many contemporary glossy depictions and create a field of tension between nostalgia and contemporary experience.

Set in dialogue through installation, both series critically reflect the immediate surroundings and at the same time allow us to fall back on our own worlds of memory - a finely balanced reflection on temporality, cultural memory and urban identity.