Baby shampoo in frog form, a hiking rucksack for long journeys or a new LP? After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, people from the GDR bought all kinds of things with their 100-Deutschmark “Welcome Money”. Practical items for the craftsman's shed, toys for children or a music box in the shape of a bell. They fulfil long-held wishes or enjoy spur-of-the-moment purchases. Some of them are still in use today.
30 years after the last payment of the Welcome Money, Sophie Kirchner photographs the objects and the people who acquired them. The photographer takes a look into the past, asks people about their memories and talks to them about the present and their wishes for the future. In the process, she creates unique portraits with images, text and sound clips. What hopes and dreams do you have? What wishes did you fulfil with the Welcome Money?
Building on Sophie Kirchner's photographs, the exhibition invites visitors to look back and join the conversation. A living room shelf full of everyday treasures in the museum also invites visitors to do so - a collection of wishes and dreams that were made available to us for our exhibition. What would you buy today with 100 euros?
Sophie Kirchner, born in 1984 and raised in East Berlin, is a photographer and explores what moves people then and now in her photo series "Paper Dreams".
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