»This is my family, my history [...] photographed directly from my life, out of relationships, not observations.« Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Aperture 1986

As a photographer, Nan Goldin herself is part of the web of relationships of companions, friends and lovers that populate her visual worlds. The social cohesion among creatives and bohemians in the subcultures beyond the monotonous American middle class has been the motivation and subject of her artistic work since her photographic beginnings. Nan Goldin presented her body of work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency as a slide show in 1979 at the Mudd Club in New York. From then on, it is worthwhile pursuing the following exhibition dispositifs: from the artist's book of the same name to the museum-like, musically accompanied slide show to the currently exhibited Cibachrome Prints.

Franziska Mecklenburg, born 1984 in Rostock, studied art history and economics in Hamburg. 2011/2012 research assistant at the Duchamp Research Centre/Staatliches Museum Schwerin. 2012 to 2016 Processing of the photographic archive Leonore Mau for the S. Fischer Foundation, Berlin. Since 2012 research assistant, curator and collection manager at the F.C. Gundlach Foundation, Hamburg.

Photos: © Rachele Moriggi