Millerntorwache

From April 12 until April 23, photographer Tatsiana Tkachova presents her photo series "Motherland".

The Millerntorwache will be open from Wednesday to Friday between 3 pm and 5 pm, and on the weekend between 3 pm and 6 pm. Additionally, on April 22 the exhibition will take part in the Long Night of Museums with a special programme.

In the photo series "Motherland", the photographer Tatsiana Tkachova immerses herself in the microcosm of her own family in Belarus. In this very personal work, she documents her mother's life and explores the connections among women in her family. The topics that fascinate her are the relationship between generations, what it means to be a mother, and why childhood memories influence us our whole life.

At the heart of the series is the house where generations of her family have grown up. Now her mother lives there, regularly visited by her sister. The images of her daily routine are deliberately made extremely monotonous, without any movement, creating the impression that life has stopped. She took the first image in 2018 and is continuing to work on this story.

"In my story, I revert to the subject of roots and memory, which affects every one of us and remains in our minds forever. While documenting my mother's life, it seems as if I can recognize myself in it." 

This exhibition is taking place within the framework of the Days of Exile 2023 and being supported by the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People.

Tatsiana Tkachova is an independent Belarusian journalist working with documentary photography, video, archive, and multimedia. She’s living in Hamburg since 2021. The most important part of her professional activities is devoted to personal, long-term projects that are focused on women's rights. She is a recipient of World Press Photo 2020, and others. You can find more about the artist here: http://tkachova.com/

In 2013, the Department of Culture and the Foundation of Historical Museums in Hamburg jointly supported the original concept for the use of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S. "I am delighted that the small classical guardhouse will now become a place for moving stories", said Lisa Kosok, then director of the "Hamburg Museum". "I am delighted that the small classical guardhouse will now become a place for moving and exciting stories," emphasised Lisa Kosok, then director of the "Hamburg Museum", now the Museum of Hamburg History.

Ansgar Wimmer, Chairman of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S.: "All residents and visitors of this city are cordially invited to the Museum of Hamburg History to tell something about themselves or Hamburg. In this way, the city's history becomes vivid not only through academic historiography, but also through the orally transmitted perceptions of many people."

The Millerntor was the main gate on the west side of the city in the 17th century and refers to the time when Hamburg could only be entered and left through the city gates. After the defortification of Hamburg around 1819, the gatehouse was rebuilt by 1820 according to plans by master builder Carl Ludwig Wimmel. Of the entire complex, which consisted of two larger buildings and two gatehouses with stone posts for a metal fence between them, only the small building remains today. The small guardhouse was moved 30 metres into the ramparts with a special crane on 7 March 2004, expertly restored and handed over to the Museum of Hamburg History.

The Millerntorwache is located at Millerntordamm 2, 20359 Hamburg.
If travelling by HVV: U St. Pauli