Deichtorhallen, Hamburg

Abdulhamid Kircher | Rotting from Within

05.06.–01.11.2026

We are pleased to announce Abdulhamid Kircher’s solo exhibition Rotting from Within, at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, opening Thursday, 4 June, from 8 pm.

The exhibition Rotting from Within welcomes visitors with a sprawling panorama of photographs, texts, and archival material. The newly developed installation, 9 meters wide and more than 2 meters high, interweaves scenes, encounters, and farewells between Berlin and Turkey, through which the dynamics of a father-son relationship gradually emerge, like pieces of a puzzle coming together. In this presentation, Abdulhamid Kircher also expands the focus surrounding his late paternal grandfather.

The father-son constellations in the photographs speak of loneliness, addiction, violence, and injury, but also of rapprochement, intoxication, touch, and grief. Kircher’s visual language – vibrant colours, high-contrast lighting moods and emotional frequencies – intensifies the immediacy and vulnerability of his subjects. The darkroom becomes a space of reflection and experience in which memories, relationships, and personal stories come to light.

Accompanying the exhibition as part of the 9th Triennial of Photography, an accordion-fold booklet will be published featuring image sequences from Abdulhamid Kircher’s family archive and works from the series Rotting from Within, as well as a text by Nadine Isabelle Henrich.

Curated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich, curator at the House of Photography. Curatorial assistance: Viktoria Rochambeau, curatorial trainee, House of Photography. 

www.deichtorhallen.de/en/ausstellungen/abdulhamid-kircher

Installation Views

  • Abdulhamid Kircher, Untitled, 2016
    © Abdulhamid Kircher