Palast der Republik

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Photographer Christian von Steffelin (*1963 inKarlsruhe) has been documenting the drastic changes that have occurred in East Berlin since Germany's reunification for the past seventeen years. He is especially interested in the brief intermediate states of certain buildings and public areas, and their temporality. From 1994 to 2010, the photographer was engaged in a long-term study of the Palast der Republik. What was once a building of and for the people was closed in the early nineties due to its contamination with asbestos. Despite considerable protest, the structure was later completely demolished. Von Steffelin documents the individual stages of decay of the former center of power--from the bits and pieces of leftover interiors and the skeleton of the building, to the space that remained after its demolition. These images of a slow disappearance reveal the enormous discrepancies between the past and the present.