In their works, Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber address questions about the structure of cities and the links between urban and social boundaries. Their photographs reveal a particular interest in areas and neighborhoods that are marginalized or carry a certain stigma in the eyes of society. Instead of focusing on individual images, Stuke and Sieber prefer to create series and sequences, layering, mixing, and connecting elements to create wide-ranging associations.

Their most recent work links the French capital with the Ruhr and its imagined center, the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, which is often referred to as the “Eiffel Tower of the Ruhr.” However, neither the Eiffel Tower nor the Zollverein complex feature in the photos. Rather, Stuke and Sieber’s experimental work juxtaposes snapshots taken along the périphérique ring road in Paris and photos of places associated with the Ruhr.

The locations are seemingly chosen at random in this system, but it is precisely their haphazard, fragmentary arrangement that highlights unexpected parallels and ingenious connections between places, actions, events, and individuals that are separated from each other in space and time.