15 Jul Südwall
Magret Hoppe
Wild, rocky cliffs along deserted coasts, empty streets between abandoned houses captured in the break of dawn… These strangely remote places shot by Thuringian photographer Margret Hoppe show what is left of the former Südwall. The Mediterranean Coast, where once the Südwall was built by the Nazis as defense against the Allies during WWII, also gave shelter and inspiration to many German intellectuals as Thomas Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger or Berthold Brecht in exile before the atrocities of the Vichy France finally radiated into the faraway corners of Southern France. Not to forget Aldous Huxley, who wrote his dystopian novel Brave New World in Sanary-sur-Mer, a small village close to Marseille. Having all of this in mind while browsing through this artist book leaves you with a long-lasting and certainly bitter-sweet taste behind, always wondering if you may find tiny indices of what has happened here, within Hoppe’s magnificent photograph series.
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