Press Release Berlin, June 14, 2018

Wim Wenders Instant Stories

C/O Berlin will be presenting the exhibition Wim Wenders . Instant Stories from July 07 to September 23, 2018. The opening will take place on Friday, July 06, 2018, at 7:00 p.m. at the Amerika Haus, Hardenbergstrasse 22–24, 10623 Berlin.

“…a moment of surprise, a heartbeat of suspense… a ‘real and singular thing’... a little square photograph in its own frame… no negative, from which you could make duplicates, no files… ‘an original’: a true thing—not multipliable, not repeatable.” (Wim Wenders, 2017)

Summer 1973. Toast, ham and eggs, ketchup, drip coffee, tomatoes, and an omelet: scenes from an American diner. The pictures show Wim Wenders’ breakfast. The subject matter is trivial, but the occasion was momentous: it was the first day of filming for Wenders’ road movie Alice in the Cities (1973). In the film, the main character wanders through America with an instant camera, the Polaroid SX-70. Prior to the camera becoming available in stores and its innovative technology making photographic history, the fledging Polaroid company had sent Wenders a prototype, and he incorporated it into his film’s narrative.

Photography was part of Wenders’ life from an early age. He received a Leica from his father when he was just six years old. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Polaroids were his preferred photographic medium—a complimentary tool for research on his films and a daily companion. Wenders’ Polaroid photos are autobiographical, opening up windows into diffe- rent stages of his life. They were a visual notebook, a field of experimentation, and travel report. The resulting collection of pictures includes thousands of unique, personal shots of his film sets and travels through Europe, the United States, and many other places around the globe. They show Wenders in his personal surroundings and portraits of celebrities and friends including Annie Leibovitz, Robby Müller, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Handke.

The exhibition Wim Wenders . Instant Stories, presenting a selection of approximately 240 Polaroids by the award-winning director, filmmaker, and artist Wim Wenders, will be making its first and only stop in Germany at C/O Berlin. Along with Wenders’ photographs, the exhibition includes excerpts from films in which Wenders used the medium of instant photography as part of the film narrative. The catalog accompanying the exhibition, published by Schirmer/Mosel, Munich, highlights the often sketch-like, diaristic character of his Polaroids.

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Wim Wenders Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery in London. It was curated by Felix Hoffmann and Anna Duque y González.

C/O Berlin Foundation . Amerika Haus . Hardenbergstrasse 22–24 . 10623 Berlin Tel +49.30.284 44 16-0 . Fax +49.30.284 44 16-19 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.org Press Release Berlin, June 14, 2018

Wim Wenders is considered a pioneer of New German Cinema and one of the most impor- tant representatives of contemporary German film. He is a director, producer, photographer, and writer. In addition to multiple award-winning feature films including Alice in the Cities (1973), The American Friend (1977), Paris, Texas (1984), Wings of Desire (1987), and The Mil- lion Dollar Hotel (2000), his most recent documentary films, Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Pina (2011), and The Salt of the Earth (2014) were nominated for the Academy Awards. The documentary film Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (2018) recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. His new feature film Grenzenlos (Submergence) will be having its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF on September 10, 2018. Wenders’ photographic works have been shown in numerous museums worldwide including Centre Pompidou in Paris, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. In the fall of 2012, Wim Wenders and his wife Donata Wenders established the Wim Wenders Foundation in Düsseldorf. The non-pro- fit foundation brings together Wim Wenders’ cinematic, photographic, artistic, and literary oeuvre, preserving and restoring the works and making them permanently accessible to the general public. The Wim Wenders Foundation also supports young talents in the area of innovative cinematic narration. Wim Wenders lives and works in Berlin.

Wim Wenders Instant Stories

Exhibition July 07–September 23, 2018 Opening July 06, 2018 . 07:00 p.m. Press Tour July 06, 2018 . 11:00 a.m. Opening Hours daily . 11:00 a.m.–08:00 p.m. Admission 10 Euro . reduced 6 Euro

Location C/O Berlin . Amerika Haus Hardenbergstrasse 22–24 . 10623 Berlin

Organizer C/O Berlin Foundation www.co-berlin.org

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Press Contact Trang Vu Thuy T +49.30.284 44 16 41 . [email protected]

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C/O Berlin Foundation . Amerika Haus . Hardenbergstrasse 22–24 . 10623 Berlin Tel +49.30.284 44 16-0 . Fax +49.30.284 44 16-19 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.org