Pia Lanzinger (born 1960, lives in Berlin) is interested in (un)spectacular places that she explores for their historical layers. Her investigation method includes multi-media field research alongside text and media analysis, which is reflected in her work. Her installations can thus be understood as Spurensicherung (confirmation of evidence). The invitation from Kunstverein Langenhagen has enabled her to continue her research project on Obersalzberg.

Since 2005 Pia Lanzinger investigates how our view of the Obersalzberg has been conditioned. There, over the course of 150 years of tourism and 12 years of Nazi rule, a modern myth has been inscribed into the architecture there. After a stage in which the upper middle-classes could enjoy the beauty of the mountain, Adolf Hitler made use of its nature by presenting his state guests with a view from the panorama window of his mountain retreat as an ultimate expression of might and power. The symbolically laden backdrop gains in explosiveness through the erection of a luxury hotel in the year 2005, whereby ambiguity, parallelism and illusionism can hardly be avoided. Reactions to the historic overlay fluctuate between an attempt at diversion and sheer fascination.

In spring, 2009, Pia Lanzinger visited the hotel Zum Türken, which claimed to offer the original view from Hitler's Berghof. It had been converted in 1934 for Hitler's personal bodyguards, the Reichssicherheitsdienst (Security Services), and from 1949 to the present day has again been run as a family business. In the hallway is a homely collection of images of Berghof and its former inhabitants, and thank you letters from visitors. Questionable collections of devotional objects and pure kitsch fuse into a private mythology that conceptualises an abysmal scenario in front of the panorama of the Berchtesgaden area.

Alongside the new work, the solo exhibition Fatal Frames includes the multi-media installation, A Breathtaking Backdrop, from 2005. The exhibtion produces a highly sophisticated historical view of the relationship between framing and power interests by means of vistas of the legendary area around Watzmann and Untersberg.