Corina Gertz: The averted portrait

Since 2001, Gertz has been exploring clothing as non-verbal communication in her photographs - signs of class and status, group affiliations, regional identity, denomination and official function. She has been working on her series The Averted Portrait since 2010 and her work has been exhibited in international museums and galleries such as MARTA Herford, Shanghai Art Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Museo delle Culture del Mondo Genoa, and White Box Art Centre, 798, Beijing.

Corina Gertz photographs people all over the world in traditional dress. She deals with the threat to cultural heritage posed by globalisation. Her focus is on the seemingly quieter side of the portrait, the back views. The individual remains hidden, only the clothing carries information. At the same time, the front of the clothing is representative, conveying status and habitus, while the back is more intimate, personal and unnoticed.

In 2023, Alexander Ochs invited the artist to photograph members of mining fraternities and miners' organisations in the Ore Mountains in the same way. During a trip lasting several days, she visited Annaberg-Buchholz, Ehrenfriedersdorf, Freiberg, Marienberg, Oelsnitz/Erzgebirge, Schneeberg and Schwarzenberg, where she captured miners in front of the lens of her camera. These are now juxtaposed with motifs from China, Cuba, Kenya, France, Spain and Turkmenistan.

An exhibition has been created on the site of the historic horse-drawn pithead at the Rudolfschacht in Marienberg that turns the historic mine into a personal encounter. At the same time, it opens up the view by visualising the attention that is paid worldwide to the cultivation of culture and tradition. 20 larger-than-life "averted" portraits are located in the outdoor area, eight in the rooms of the shaft house and the cutting bench, and can be visited there until 2 November 2025 during the museum's opening hours.