Andrés Galeano at the Dombauarchiv
In 2014, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took along a stone fragment from the buttresses on the south face of Cologne Cathedral on his flight into space and to the International Space Station (ISS). The stone’s unusual journey and its return to Cologne Cathedral was documented for journalistic appeal and received extensive media coverage. Today, it is located in the Dombauarchiv, where, in a showcase in the foyer, it is now only viewable by visitors to the cathedral administration. Adopting archival working methods, Andrés Galeano becomes the cathedral stone’s new biographer. With the assistance of photography as his research medium, he writes a detailed life story of this auratic item, taking an at once serious and amused look at his object of examination.
Andrés Galeano
Andrés Galeano (*1980, Mataró, Spain) has degrees in philosophy, photography and fine arts. His photographs, video works and performances have been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Europe and America. Galeano's photographic work deals with amateur photography and the medium's historical relationship with the firmament. As a post-photographer, he recycles iconographies and discovers moments in which photography reflects on itself and creates an unexpected metadiscourse.
More about Andrés Galeano:
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Dombauarchiv (Building Archive of the Cologne Cathedral)
The Dombauarchiv documents the construction and restoration work carried out since the Middle Ages on one of the world's most important sacred buildings and a symbol of the city - the Cologne Cathedral. It comprises almost all the files relating to the Cathedral's construction since 1816 as well as around 20,000 plans and drawings, a comprehensive collection of historical and contemporary photographs and a large specialised library with around 25,000 volumes and 230 current publications. In addition, there is an art collection with paintings, prints and artefacts. An extensive collection of the Magi also offers pictorial evidence and scientific literature on the "Three Wise Men“. In the Cathedral's model chamber, hundreds of 19th and 20th century plaster models are kept, as well as original sculptures of the medieval St Peter's portal.
The extensive image collection of the Dombauarchiv, with around 50,000 historical and recent photographs of Cologne Cathedral, its furnishings and the work of the Cologne Cathedral Building Workshop, as well as reproductions and scans of archival documents and plans from the Dombauarchiv, is available for academic research, but also for publications on Cologne Cathedral in general. The Dombauarchiv is a scientific institution that stimulates, supervises and publishes cathedral research in many areas.
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View of the unfinished cathedral from the northwest, Gebr. Schönscheid, 1862
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte
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View into the model chamber on the 2nd floor of the northern cathedral tower
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte; Foto: M. Deml
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View of the recently completed cathedral from the east, Johann Heinrich Schönscheidt, 1880
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte
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Shelf in the file depot of the cathedral building archive
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte; Foto: M. Unkelbach
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Black and white image. View into the war-damaged vaults of the northern transept of the cathedral, 1943
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte
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View of the badly damaged north transept of Cologne Cathedral, 1943
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte
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Medieval elevation of the east side of the second floor of the southern cathedral tower, so-called Riss E, 1st half of the 14th century
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte; Foto: Matz und Schenk
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War defense measures in the inner choir of Cologne Cathedral, August Kreyenkamp, 1940
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte
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War protection measures for the choir stalls, the choir screen paintings and the choir pillar figures of Cologne Cathedral, August Kreyenkamp , 1940
© Hohe Domkirche Köln, Dombauhütte
More about the Dombauarchiv:
Website
Artist Meets Archive #4
The Internationale Photoszene Köln is hosting the Artist Meets Archive program for the fourth time in collaboration with the photographic collections and archives of the city of Cologne. International artists are invited for a residency at the participating institutions, where they engage with the respective collections and develop exhibitions that will be presented as part of the Photoszene Festival in Cologne.