born in brennen*

Taking its cue from a recent Patti Smith concert where the singer’s malapropism resulted in associations of burning, light, and combustion 
(“Born in Bremen” results in Born in Brennen), Koopman’s second monograph explores the critical and humane conditions 
existing between the poles of protest and routine in a globalized landscape. Photographs document hastily improvised 
crowd control barricades and security reinforcements, frumpy camouflage draped over doorways and stairwells, sullen protestors 
and armored troops at global summits. Shot between 2001 and 2009, Born in Brennen features photographic essays shot across the globe, 
punctuated by conversations, fragments, and correspondence with a number of contemporaries. Through a series of neologisms 
suggested by the book’s subtitle — “Architecture of anxiety, Camouflage, Demoland, Discobedience, Placed” — 
a final chapter of intimate black-and-white concert portraits are linked to earlier demonstrations of dissent and resistance, but never explicitly valorized. 
Indeed, instead of asserting over-determined connections between crowd action, performance, and resistance, 
Koopman’s photographs register a pervasive ambiguity— a sense of confusion, displacement, and inconsistency.>>>>>





Der Buchtitel bezieht sich auf eine fehlerhafte Textzeile aus einem Song von Patti Smith für den Ex-Guantanamo-Häftling Murat Kurnaz. 
Eine erste Assoziation ist geschaffen und wird durch den Untertitel ›Architektur der Angst, Camouflage, Demoland, Discobedience‹ genauer erläutert: 
Jörg Koopmann erzählt in verschiedenen Kleinserien aus den letzten acht Jahren von einer politisierten Welt. Neben historischen Schauplätzen sieht man alltäglich gewordene Grenzziehungen. 
Die dargestellten Menschen nehmen entweder öffentlich Stellung oder versuchen in der Musik ihre Beklemmung auszudrücken.