Norman Behrendt: EXIT U3

In this series "Exit", Berlin-based photographer Norman Behrendt shows photographs of different opened emergency hatches of the Berlin U-Bahn. Framing them in their mundane, everyday environment (an anonymous street corner, a Spielplatz...), he questions the role of these "hidden in plain sight" but nonetheless secret, functional objects connecting the underground to the overground. Why are they open while they should not be? Who actioned and motioned them? Did people transited through them? For which purpose? 

In this series where time and space collide and collapse, the hatches slowly take the shape of unique vessels to otherwordly universes, carrying their passengers to undisclosed locations. They are in Kyiv sheltering the population, they are lost exits of bunkers, they are access to catacombs and lost spaces, they are the Underworld.

The colors of the border represents the color of the U-Bahn line: U3 - Pine Green

Norman Behrendt: EXIT

Edition of 13 prints 

60 x 60 cm

Signed and numbered 

2024

Without frame

About the artist

Norman Behrendt is a visual artist and photographer based in Berlin. He holds a Master of Arts with distinction from the University of Westminster, London and was a scholarship holder by the DAAD. Behrendt aims to raise critical awareness of the political and social changes of our time. Within this framework, his work exists on the boundaries between documentary and conceptual photography. 

His works have been shown in various contexts internationally, and are held in both national and international public and private collections, including Martin Parr Photobook Collection, Tate Britain, and Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) amongst others. He has published several photobooks, including "Burning Down the House", "Brave New Turkey" and his latest production, "Blueprint 2017-2020", which explores how the mass media has influenced political debates and democratic processes during Brexit.