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Opening in the Sauna, SZ Online, 2005-09-27

The Berlin Photographer Jens Komossa (40) only opens the shutter of his camera once night has fallen. Four or five hours can easily slip by before he has the picture he wants.

He has spent many nights this way in green, neon-lit French towns, and on the streets of Berlin. Some time ago, Komossa turned the night in Finnish Komossa into day. How quaint: Komossa found himself, thanks to the internet and a farmer by the name of Kjell Engström, pulled to the little village in Osterbotten that happened to be his namesake.

Shortly after making this internet acquaintance, Jens Komossa visited the lonely, 100-person village. On his nightly photo hunts in the natural, open setting, he had strange, never before dreamed-of experiences: “At night, the sun would disappear, but not the light.”

Komossa’s discovery of nearly day-bright, nighttime photography in Komossa seemed to require an equally unusual setting for the exhibition. As of tomorrow, the guests of the mixed sex saunas of the Chemnitz state bathhouses can relax and enjoy the sight of Komossa’s work. The opening is today (5:30 PM), in the sauna.

“Komossa in Finland” is a two-part exhibition of the New Saxon Gallery; another selection of large format, long exposure time photography is on display at the museum itself, “Tietz.” In the meantime, Komossa has learned what Komossa means in Finnish: The cow in the clearing.

Ch. Hamann-Poenisch

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