Barbara Probst
Stop
July 19–September 15, 2000
Munich

Amidst the city’s towering glass structures, the occasional wail of sirens swells and recedes. Events unfold in quick succession here, in close proximity, yet also at a distance. From that distance emerges the occasional shock—a disruption—and for a fleeting moment, time appears to stand still, if only particularly and for a short second. 
It seems that such a moment always carries with it a multitude of other images, pictures left to us to unpack.


“Stop” shows us a model in one such package of an urban moment, here in the form of 12 snapshots depicting a simple, small leap. The artist herself captured the leaper mid-stride, with the camera shutter already open, amidst the nocturnal surroundings. The goal was to freeze the jump as a singular, ephemeral moment, briefly illuminated by a flash of light. As a result, these shots do not depict various stages of motion, as one might initially assume. Instead, similar to the multi-perspective montages in movie accident scenes, a sequence of additional images emerges from a single frame. These images all share the same internal context, representing the identical moment, yet they offer diverse interpretations within an external context.