MARINA MÓNACO
Ava during a cold winter, Neukölln - Berlin, December, 2023
Ava at 8mm Bar. Prenzlauer Berg - Berlin, August, 2024
Josefina and Lucila under the snow, Maybachufer - Berlin, November, 2023
Finn smoking a cigarette at the backyard, Neukölln - Berlin, July, 2024
Emilia and Olga waiting for the train at Kurfürstendamm Zoologischer Garten - Berlin, August
Nils during the blue hour at Zoo, Zoologischer Garten - Berlin, July, 2024
Nils smoking a cigarette at U Bülowstrasse, Schöneberg - Berlin, July, 2024
Which motif/scene is typical Berlin for you?
Going to an underground gig at a bar, going backstage with the musicians, and capturing memories while having good conversations with them. The German language, which I hardly understand, is always in the background, making me feel like I’m in a movie.
What makes Berlin unique for you?
Berlin has this beautiful attractive dark energy. The spaces feel stuck in time, you feel history and a sense of nostalgia that is hard to describe if you are not here. I always time travel, that’s why I love it.
Your favorite place in Berlin is …
For finding inspiration: C/O Berlin. For self-reflection: walking through Tempelhof during the blue hour. For listening to good music: West-Germany, 8mm, Loophole (which sadly closed down), and Loge.
MARINA MÓNACO is a Berlin-based photographer and director from Buenos Aires. Since moving to Germany to join the Film Akademie Baden-Württemberg in 2020, she has explored the spectrum of youth culture across suburban Europe. Raw, vulnerable, unapologetic, her ongoing series Kids serves as the living manifesto of a generation she is part of. In 2023 she presented her first solo exhibition in Berlin, I Saw You in a Song, and published a book with the same title. In her Neue Welle series, she developed a signature style at the interface between documentary photography and dark, cold sound. Mónaco’s latest projects include a second publication release, I Saw You in a Song: An Anti-Memoir and a new exhibition in Berlin. In June 2024 she made her debut solo exhibition and artist residency program at Contact Photo in New York.