Hip Hop: Conscious, Unconscious, Fotografiska. The Contemporary Museum of Photography, Art & Culture, Berlin, 20.09.2024-26.01.2025

Abstract

Hip Hop: Conscious, Unconscious is an exhibition through which Fotografiska. The Contemporary Museum of Photography, Art & Culture and Mass Appeal (an American media and content company) celebrate 50 years of hip hop culture. Before discussing the exhibition, a few words should be dedicated to the museum. Versions of this museum exist in Stockholm, New York, Shanghai, Tallinn, and Oslo, each offering unique experiences brought together by the same concept and the attempt to expose the public to astounding photography. More than a museum per se, Fotografiska is a concept and a space and, at least in Berlin, a place of memory and commemoration. The Berlin Museum is located within the space of the former Tacheles, an iconic squat and alternative creative space which was born in the 1990s in former East Berlin. The site had previously housed the Wertheim Department Store, confiscated from its Jewish owners during World War II. Thus, in time, the space has embodied three identities, which kept, in their own way, traces of their former selves. Even in its current metamorphosis, older parts of the building are integrated into the new structure and its overall vibe is kept alive by the abundance of graffiti covering the walls of the stairwell and hallways. Curated by Sascha Jenkins (Mass Appeal) and Sally Berman (Hearst Visual Group) and showing 200 photographs taken by 50 artists (such as Martha Cooper, Jonathan Mannion, Janette Beckman, Campbell Addy), the exhibition invites its viewers to explore how collective expression connects to empowerment. In the intention of its curators, the exhibition traces hip hop’s dynamic evolution from its underground origins in the Bronx to its status as a global phenomenon today. According to their presentation, its curators did not intend to offer a retrospective, a mere chronological account of events and emerging genres but rather to capture hip hop’s “(r)evolution” from an “unconscious force into a conscious global movement, influencing music, art, fashion and language worldwide”.