More than just a replacement: The PHOXXI is a convincing solution far away from the usual container romanticism.

With the PHOXXI, the Deichtorhallen are planning something big: from now on, the container will serve for three years as a replacement for the Haus der Photographie, which will remain closed for renovation work. With this kind of bridging, the Deichtorhallen are pursuing their plan to remain visible despite renovation work. With its colorful façade, the PHOXXI is intended to attract the attention of a young clientele. Dirk Luckow, artistic director of the Deichtorhallen, thinks it could even become the city's new meeting place for tourists. »We're not hiding the temporary here, we're really staging it,« he says with pride at the opening.

Luckow came up with the idea of a container as an alternative location for the House of Photography during a visit to the Hammerbrooklyn.DigitalCampus project, a project for digitization that started provisionally in 2019 with green containers in the parking lot of the former Fruchthof. The elongated, gorge-shaped space, which literally pulls you in, had an almost cathedral-like effect with its high ceiling - this fascinating effect should also be present in the new Deichtorhallen project, which was originally only to house office space.

Luckow emphasizes that with PHOXXI he wanted to move away from the classic container romanticism; after all, this idea is anything but new. His intention was to end up with the modern white cube. The new building became an eye-catcher from the outside thanks to the German artist and art professor Anselm Reyle (*1970), whom the Deichtorhallen were able to win over to design the exterior façade. His typical neon color-dominating stripe style, together with the applied photographs by F. C. Gundlach, the founding director of the House of Photography, and Frida Orupabo, sets the cube apart from its surroundings.

The cathedral-like interior of the PHOXXI is further enhanced by the second level, which was integrated into the 50 x 12.5 m container ensemble: Via a staircase, one enters the gallery, where the works of Frida Orupabo are currently exhibited. On the first floor directly behind the staircase, somewhat hidden, is the media room, where space has been created for video art.

The only shortcoming of the new project is that it is not (yet) barrier-free. The steps in front of the entrance will soon be equipped with a ramp, while individual solutions will have to be found for the stairs to the gallery, says Luckow in response to a comment.

Until January 23, 2022, the inaugural exhibition focuses on works by three artists that demonstrate the diversity of the medium of photography. Englishman Jack Davison traditionally works with photographs in which he combines references to motifs and styles from photography's nearly 200-year history with social media aesthetics.

Sometimes in color, sometimes in black and white, from small to large format, Davison presents his works in a simplistic manner designed to direct viewers entirely to the content and the emotions evoked within them. Davison emphasizes careful physical work, choosing an analog or digital camera or even an iPhone, depending on the subject. He rarely uses image editing programs for small details or to crop edges, refining the composition.

Israeli video artist Omer Fast moves between fiction and documentary in his short film August. In parallel, Fast narrates the making of August Sander's famous portrait series People of the 20th Century, as well as the last difficult years of the fictional, nearly blind character August Sander's life. Fast takes up Sander's deliberate composition of the portraits, which are meant to look like spontaneous snapshots, and thus raises the question of how close images can be to reality. Norwegian-Nigerian artist Frida Orupabo explores the colonial legacy of European cultural ideas imposed on African countries. She reassembles historical and private images in collages that combine photography and sculpture. Orupabo alienates historical photographs taken by white people into contemporary works liberated from borders that oppose racism and sexism.