Zeppelin-Weltfahrten

THE GÄLLERY, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 2026

Photography found its most popular form of dissemination during the 1930s in the form of collectible pictures included with cigarette packs, for which pre-made scrapbooks were available. The starting point for Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb’s wall installation, however, is a repurposed “sales and income tax ledger.” In this book, images from the 1933 series Zeppelin World Tours and The New Reich were pasted onto the right-hand “expenses” page, while the corresponding image contents were handwritten on the left-hand “income” page. While the artist reproduces the pages with the summaries faithfully and in full and presents them in a grid layout, she selects only a few of the collectible images, which she then enlarges and mounts on the wall in an irregular arrangement. In this way, she draws our attention not only to specific image contents but also to significant empty spaces-thereby sensitizing us to the interconnections between industrial production, knowledge dissemination, entertainment, and political propaganda.

Text: Bertram Kaschek, Kurator of the exhibition UNORDNUNG, Fotosommer 2026.

Zeppelin-Weltfahrten Zeppelin World Tours, 2026
16 Pigmentprints 30 x 40 cm and 30 x 45 cm each,
25 Pigmentprints 33 x 20 cm each,
Inkjet Pigment prints on fleece wallpaper
Collector’s album of 1938

Photo Credits: Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb (1-9, 12),
Many thanks to Fotosommer (10,11)
Image rights VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb (1-9, 12)