Marcus Kaiser has been exploring the concept of the image for almost 30 years. Following on from his work on “Artificial Ruins”, Kaiser photographed numerous destroyed and abandoned buildings as well as deconstructions and demolitions of modern architecture in the east of Berlin, such as the “Ahornblatt”, in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2003, he created the installation “z.T. Garten”, an optical hut with a virtual image of the city on the site of the former Szczecin railway station. The installation “Broken Image” on the grounds of the Friedrich – Ludwig – Jahn – Sportpark follows on from these works. Documentary film footage of demolition work on modern GDR architecture illuminates the ticket booth transformed into a sculpture and confronts the viewer with the still-existing “image” of the stadium.
A distinctive feature of the installation is the Greek inscription εἰκονοκλασία (“eikonoklasía”), meaning “iconoclasm” or “image destruction”. By prominently displaying this word, Kaiser not only references the destruction of the architectural and cultural manifestations of East German modernism, but also invites reflection on the broader phenomenon of iconoclasm—the purposeful destruction of images, artefacts, or symbols for ideological reasons. Through this gesture, the installation critically interrogates the cultural and political processes behind the disappearance of these buildings, highlighting how the erasure of images is interwoven with memory, identity, and collective history.
(Katharina Lüdicke, Curator)