Installments

Installment #6: Claudius Dorner – Schuirweg 107

The monastery with the address Schuirweg 107 in Essen’s district Schuir has been home to the convent of the Barmherzige Schwestern der Heiligen Elisabeth until 2016. Because the 30 remaining members of the order moved to a home for the elderly, the spacious building of the monastery was sold to a new owner, who turned it into a home for refugees. Where there used to be a chapel, a craft room, a carpenter’s workshop and a cellar dedicated to the task of peeling potatoes, are now bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens and community bathrooms. The first of the 75 new inhabitants could move into their rooms in July 2017.

Claudius Dorner has documented the conversion of the monastery in a long-term study. His photographs show interiors without displaying people. The images still convey the spirit of the former religious life that took place in the rooms, and in the same time hint to the new reality that is about to move in and replace the familiar. The reconstruction of the rooms of the monastery at Schuirweg 107 hence stands for the transformation of the lives of its previous and future residents and evokes questions about societal change, belonging and home.

Claudius Dorner (*1991 in Düsseldorf) studies photography at Folkwang University of the Arts and at the Valand Academy in Göteborg (Sweden). He has earned a B.A. in Philosophie-Künste-Medien (2015, Universität Hildesheim). His work in photography and film shows interest in current matters of the global economy, such as news reports from so-called areas of crisis (Demonstration, 2013) or the phenomenon of online shopping (Windows, 2017). His exhibition at kma71 is his first solo exhibition.

Image copyright: Claudius Dorner