PHOTO: Annette Frick-Take A Walk on the Wild Side
Annette Frick has been working as a photographer and filmmaker for almost 40 years, chronicling the lifestyles and struggles of socially marginalized groups. As a companion to underground movements and as an activist, she draws attention to individuals in whose lives the confrontation with body images, sexuality and discrimination plays a special role.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: CFA Archive
Annette Frick continuously accompanies members and advocates of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and queer), punk and art scene with her camera, creating intimate and sometimes provocative images that document the struggle for recognition and equality. Annette Frick’s solo exhibition “Take A Walk on the Wild Side” offers a unique insight into a Berlin that, in its original form, barely exists anymore. Annette Frick invites visitors to discover Berlin of the 80s, 90s, and 00s – a city shaped by its architecture, its people, and its subcultures. Since the 1990s, Annette Frick has established herself as an indefatigable portraitist of a unique and rebellious Berlin subculture. While American drag icons around Andy Warhol were already being celebrated as superstars in the 70s, the equally vibrant and wild queer scene in Berlin, which was in no way inferior to the American scene, remained largely unknown in international media. In Frick’s photographs, this scene receives the attention and dedication it deserves – a queer subculture shaped as much by political will as by joie de vivre and fun. The exhibition is divided into two intertwined cycles of work: one cycle “Nix…meta…meta…schwupp…weg…is…et…“ is dedicated to the architecture of Berlin. The photographs, mostly taken in the 90s and 00s, tell of the traces left by several dictatorships and the historical division of the city. It becomes clear how the Berlin cityscape not only serves as a witness to its own history but also reflects the social tensions and dynamics of a queer underground scene. In “Walk on the Wild Side”, Lou Reed sings of the tramp Holly, who transforms from a “he” into a “she” on her journey from Miami to New York, and then laconically says, “Hey Babe, Take a Walk on The Wild Side.” The very same Holly Woodlawn presents herself through Annette Frick lasciviously lighting a cigarette with her manager, enjoying life even in its rough aspects – as if she wanted to invite everyone around her to “Take A Walk on The Wild Side” The second part focuses on the actors of exactly this Berlin queer scene and underground, brought to life in Frick’s intimate portraits. These images feature drag queens, activists, and other queer figures who shaped the nightlife and AIDS activism of the 80s and 90s. We meet important players in the scene, such as Ovo Maltine, Ichgola Androgyn or Tima, the Divine, in changing rooms, demos, on stage and in clubs. “Juwelia” (2010) is a photograph of the artist’s friend, Juwelia Soraya, was taken at the Lastwagenparkplatz, a truck parking lot close to the former East-West border of Berlin. An artist, singer and punk drag queen, Soraya has also acted in films such as Rosa von Praunheim’s Überleben in Neukölln (Survival in Neukölln), which documents the trials of an openly queer person in Germany after the reunification. Here, Soraya stands with outstretched arms on a stone base. Seen together with the other works in the series, she is depicted almost as a moving statue wandering through a city that has likewise been set into motion. Petra Krause was another important performer in Berlin’s queer nightlife. Krause was among the performers part of the Teufelsberger performance group. Their most famous theater presentation was called “Crocodiabalo”, which was shown at major venues across Berlin. The night that the photo “Petra Krause” (1995), was taken was an important turning point in Frick’s career, the first night she saw her soon-to-be dear friend and collaborator Gunter Trube performing. Taken at the Checkpoint Theater in 1995, it was also one of the first times Frick photographed a drag show, which would be followed by a series of works documenting drag performers outside of their club locations. The performance that night was “Trinklieder, die zum Tode führen” (“Drinking songs that lead to death”).
Photo: Annette Frick, Juwelia Vier Jahreszeiten – Frühling, 2013, inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 60 x 70 cm, © Annette Frick, Courtesy the artist and Contemporary Fine Arts Basel AG
Info Contemporary Fine Arts Basel AG, Totengässlein 5, Basel, Switzerland, Duration: 29/3-31/5/2025, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 12:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-16:00, https://cfa-gallery.com/
