We invite you to screening of the biographical film Rettet das Fuerer (Save the Fire) about the German photographer Jürgen Baldig, who documented the queer subcultures of West Berlin in the 1980s and 1990s, including the HIV/AIDS crisis. The screening will be followed by a lecture by Ben Miller on Jürgen Baldig and the dangers of a one-sided view of art dedicated to the topic of HIV/AIDS.

A selection of photographs by Jürgen Baldiga (1959–1993) is on view at In the Matter of Art Biennial at the Trade Fair Palace through September 13, 2026. In close dialogue with the exhibited works, we also present the series “The Warmth Only Fire Can Give—A Series of Portraits” by Aron Neubert, his friend who photographed him during the final period of his life.

"Berlin, 1993. Photographer and artist Jürgen Baldiga is battling HIV. In the 1990s, the AIDS epidemic reached its peak, for which no one was prepared. The bodies of those infected and their stories are disappearing, and their existence is fading away. Through the deaths of his friends and, subsequently, his own, Baldiga becomes a chronicler of his time: “I photograph. I photograph the world. I exist.” Identity and history vanish without the persistence of memory. Until the very last days of his life, Jürgen documents the exodus that engulfed him. *Rettet das Feuer* (Save the Fire) focuses on a piece of West Berlin’s history and the voices of collective memory."