Silence in Hellersdorf
Silence, wandering teargas-like, through gray streets and neon-lit corridors. Silence, hidden behind small windows’ curtains and clenched fists, still smelling of burned down refugee camps and far-right parties’ propaganda.
Hellersdorf-Marzahn, that Berlin district, where highly organized far-right groups fuse with ordinary bourgeois racists, where so called concerned citizens set up demonstrations against refugees, and far-right parties organize children’s parties for everyone - as long as everyone owns the right’s skin-color, gender and orientation. Situated in the far east of Berlin, it is known for its dull high-rise housing blocks, its greyness, its social problems and its xenophobia: 354 cases of far-right and xenophobic activities in 2016 alone - the second highest number in the whole of Berlin.
In my opinion, Hellersdorf is architectural violence, expression of an insane attempt to squeeze as many people as possible into a limited space, regardless of its social and individual consequences. I felt that a dozen of untold stories lurked behind the glossy windows of Hellersdorf. Untold stories, unheard voices, unseen problems that resonate into a dangerous silence, a silence so loud that one needs to level up the volume of one’s headphones in order to not hear it. My photos show the loneliness and tristesse which I felt while wandering through this concrete jungle in autumn 2014. It is the perspective of an outsider.