Geräusch einer fernen Brandung
Arne Schmitt

»The Sound of Distant Surf« consists solely of a title, 63 colour photographs and a historic newspaper article. All three elements reference an emblematic element of German cities that provides a profound connection between the post-war era and the present: the omnipresent arterial roads that form rings around urban centres and cut swathes through urban landscapes. They stand for a central aspect of city life: the coexistence and simultaneous lack of connection between a city’s inhabitants and its ‘users’, compartmentalized individual traffic with-in a set of comprehensive traffic regulations. However ubiquitous and banal these roads may seem, their story is special and historically relevant. They provided the structural framework as Germany’s cities were rebuilt after 1945. In Arne Schmitt’s detailed photos, street names, cars, facades and company logos are pieces of a mosaic representing present-day Germany.