Messages sent encrypted, transmitted in stealth, information received as a secret. Evaluated and summarised as strategy papers on the basis of which political decisions are made. Subjects of surveillance remain secret. Places that would be recognisable as targets remain invisible. Understanding the other side. To know what they are doing before they will decide. Invisible infrastructure, Cold War, clear antagonist.
Change of times. Obvious becomes obscure. Reorienting instances and goals. Invisible power becomes visible force.
The photographs of the Bundesnachrichtendienst headquarter (German Federal Intelligence Service) in Berlin's Chauseestrasse were taken between completion and the final use of the building between 2014 and 2018. The empty facade shines as a representative of a federal authority searching for orientation. After the end of the Cold War and decades of hiding in a bunker near Munich, the Bundesnachrichtendienst has moved its base to Berlin's city centre since 2016. The changed political goals and opponents are responded to by making the structure of the investigation visible. Architecture as power, size as an expression of superiority. Symbolism as a project for iconisation.
Messages sent encrypted, transmitted in stealth, information received as a secret. Evaluated and summarised as strategy papers on the basis of which political decisions are made. Subjects of surveillance remain secret. Places that would be recognisable as targets remain invisible. Understanding the other side. To know what they are doing before they will decide. Invisible infrastructure, Cold War, clear antagonist.
Change of times. Obvious becomes obscure. Reorienting instances and goals. Invisible power becomes visible force.
The photographs of the Bundesnachrichtendienst headquarter (German Federal Intelligence Service) in Berlin's Chauseestrasse were taken between completion and the final use of the building between 2014 and 2018. The empty facade shines as a representative of a federal authority searching for orientation. After the end of the Cold War and decades of hiding in a bunker near Munich, the Bundesnachrichtendienst has moved its base to Berlin's city centre since 2016. The changed political goals and opponents are responded to by making the structure of the investigation visible. Architecture as power, size as an expression of superiority. Symbolism as a project for iconisation.