Final Rest

The classic red telephone box was designed in 1924 by London architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott as part of a design competition for the British Post Office. It was once used for undisturbed, acoustically shielded telephone communication. Over the past decade and a half, the last Deutsche Telekom phone booths have completely disappeared from public view. Yet this piece of street furniture symbolises the human need for peace and quiet in urban spaces like no other. Thousands of these phone boxes have found their (temporary) final resting place in a wooded area near Berlin. As an alternative to this undignified burial, some are being given a new lease of life as public bookcases. But wouldn't it be worth considering reviving the classic telephone box as a public island of calm in the city? Or would they have no chance of survival there?

With the purely photographic depiction of a relic of urban silence, Bodo Hartwig deliberately withdraws from his traditional means of expression - sound. By crossing this boundary, he confronts the audience with the experiment of reconstructing sound or silence from memory or imagination.

Location: Gutshof Britz, ticket booth in the entrance area