The Aachen bus station in the focus of photography

Modern, irritating, controversial. Hardly any other building of the 1970s has changed the center of Aachen as lastingly as the bus station. Completed in 1973, the extraordinary building can be seen retrospectively as a "child of its time": a multifunctional building in which concrete was used not only for the construction but also for the surface appearance - in combination with its sculptural design language, it unsettled the general sense of taste. Nevertheless, the bus station was and is an impressive statement of new architecture. From the very beginning, the building was a grateful subject for photographers. Aesthetics played less of a role than its non-conformity in the urban context. In a kind of journey through time, Achim Ferrari's pictures document the building and its changing functions very impressively, showing what it originally was, what it was supposed to be and what it has become. Ferrari mainly photographed the building in the early 1980s. Interestingly, the photographs show less the presence of people in the use of the building than its "nooks and crannies", voids and shallows. Ferrari looks at the subject in front of his camera with a particular professionalism, having studied architecture himself. Recognizing spatial relationships leads to the creation of images that redefine the object. The visual results are multi-layered - essayistic when the image section is radically narrowed and writing is included, as is the case in some of Achim Ferrari's photographs.

September 14, 2025, 12:00 to 17:00, Foyer of the vhs Aachen, Peterstraße 21-25

Free of charge